Green Bay Packers: Ranking the NFC North linebackers
4. DETROIT LIONS
Priority one for this linebacker contingent is creating stability at the MIKE position. For years, Lions fans could rest easy knowing that Stephen Tulloch would excel as the defense’s fierce and tenacious leader who knew how to gain leverage and meet the opposing ball carrier head-on.
Those days are over and the coaching staff will initially turn to Tahir Whitehead to play that role. The Temple product is more of chase defender that can make sideline-to-sideline plays.
He’s never been known to be a physical take-on enforcer, but Whitehead may not need to be that kind of player behind Detroit’s imposing defensive tackles led by the 340-pound Haloti Ngata.
Whitehead’s first-half performance in 2015 wasn’t one for the time capsule, as he was seldom seen or heard in an ancillary role that saw him get involved in less than 50-percent of the defense’s snaps in the first eight weeks.
The fifth-year veteran took over as the starting middle linebacker in Week 9 and his year, as well as the team fortunes, took a turn for the better.
On the weakside, the return of DeAndre Levy should also make a difference given No. 54’s coverage prowess and instincts to run to the ball while fighting his way through the trenches.
Levy missed 15 of 16 regular-season games due to a hip energy in 2015 and no one was able to replace the energy the former 2009 third-round pick transmitted to his teammates on a game-to-game basis.
Josh Bynes is filled in for the injured Levy last year despite his one-dimensional characteristics. Bynes is at his best when he’s moving downhill; he lacks the ability to cover much ground when he’s dropping into coverage.
The situation at strongside linebacker lacks clarity with the disappointing Kyle Van Noy being penciled in as the starter. Time is running out on the 40th-pick of the 2014 draft; he needs to get up to speed.
Word out of OTAs is that the six-foot-three, 248-pound defender is making “huge leaps” in his development.
After suffering a sports hernia in his rookie year that rendered him a total non-factor, Van Noy looked completely out of sorts the following year. His poor practice sessions saw him struggle mightily in pass coverage and earned him 80 snaps all season.
The Reno, Nev., native was slow in picking up the defense’s multiple fronts and disguised blitz packages.
The third-year pro has showed up in tremendous shape this spring and is reportedly making better reads and trusting his eyes a lot more.
If Van Noy doesn’t continue to show progress in preseason games, he will most likely concede his spot with the number-one unit to the versatile Bynes or undrafted rookie Antwione Williams, a rangy sideline-to-sideline player who can diagnose plays.
Other reserves include former Bears second-round bust Jonathan Bostic who was ill-suited for Fangio’s 3-4 scheme. The 25-year-old SEC import is naturally fast and laterally agile, but has to get stronger and find a way to stay on the field.
The New Jersey-born Khaseem Greene is another failed Bears draft pick who was easily blocked and played an undisciplined style of ball in past opportunities where he was inserted into the starting lineup. The 27-year-old’s NFL career is hanging on by a thread.
The recently-signed Jerry Franklin is a non-descript special-teams journeyman, while Xaviar Gooden is probably nothing more than a camp body given his lack of instincts despite being a third-round pick in 2013.
Detroit’s linebacker corps has more questions than answers and another injury to Levy could totally tear this group to shreds.
Overall, this unit will need a number of career underachievers to come through to merit anything more than a last-place ranking in the NFC North. I wouldn’t bet the mortgage on that happening.