Lamar Jackson presents ultimate test for Lions defense

The Detroit Lions’ defense was decimated by injuries last year, reducing what had the talent to be an elite unit to a shell of itself by the end of the season, culminating in a 45-31 upset loss to the Washington Commanders in their first playoff game. Now that the unit has gotten mostly healthy over the offseason, one of Detroit’s major storylines to begin the 2025 season was how good their defense could be with a clean bill of health and a rookie defensive coordinator in Kelvin Sheppard. The group got off to a rough start with a 27-13 loss to Green Bay in Week 1, before looking a lot better in a 52-21 blowout win over Chicago. But this week? We’re really about to learn a lot about them. That’s because they have the task of defending Lamar Jackson, one of the league’s top quarterbacks and most transcendent talents football has ever seen. Jackson put up 4,172 passing yards, 41 passing touchdowns and just four interceptions last year to go along with 915 rushing yards and four touchdowns, in arguably the great