After playing two-gap interior role for Jaguars, Lions have unlocked edge value in 300-pound waiver claim Tyler Lacy
Allen Park — In a league that has increasingly gravitated toward speed-and-space players on defense — a natural counter to the proliferation of spread offense concepts — the Detroit Lions are swimming against the current with their personnel decisions, particularly with the team’s front seven.
Mind you, Alim McNeill and Levi Onwuzurike have been sidelined by injury, but the team has essentially been leaning on a rotation of three nose tackles in the middle with D.J. Reader, Tyleik Williams and Roy Lopez.
In the second level, Detroit is in base defense more than almost any team, with starting linebackers Alex Anzalone, Jack Campbell and Derrick Barnes each seeing the field for at least 85% of the available snaps.
So it would stand to reason the Lions take a different approach at edge, as well. Aidan Hutchinson works in any scheme, and like the linebackers, he barely leaves the field. However, after Marcus Davenport was temporarily lost to a chest injury, the team didn’t simply plug 250-pound Al-Quadin Muhammad into that vacant workload. Instead, they’ve been starting games and leaning heavily on two guys with far more experience playing inside than out in Pat O’Connor and Tyler Lacy.
Lions fans are familiar with O’Connor, a versatile piece who played a significant role in patching the injury-ravaged defensive front a year ago. Lacy, on the other hand, is an unknown who has come out of nowhere, managing to have a clear impact in a rapidly growing role opposite Hutchinson.