The Detroit Lions' defense was riddled by injuries last season. Among the most notable absences was linebacker Alex Anzalone, who missed six games due to a broken left arm before returning for the regular season finale.
As shown by Justin Rogers of Detroit Football Network, supplementing a DVOA chart from Aaron Schatz of FTN Fantasy, Anzalone's absence correlated to a notable dip in the Lions' defensive performance late in the season.
In the critical regular season finale against the Minnesota Vikings, Anzalone played 64 defensive snaps (a 98.5 percent snap share) and uncoincidentally (with some help from a shaky Sam Darnold) the Lions held Minnesota to 262 yards of offense and nine points.
Alex Anzalone reminds everyone how uniquely critical he is to the Lions' defense
The Lions played a lot of man coverage under former defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, and that is likely to continiue under new defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard. As noted by Al Karsten of Pride of Detroit, that heavy dose of man coverage naturally extends beyond the cornerbacks to the safeties and the linebackers (according to Pro Football Focus).
Three of the top four linebackers in man coverage snaps last season (minimum 150 coverage snaps) were Lions. Jack Campbell (74.2) and Anzalone (72.1) both posted top-10 PFF coverage grades among off-ball linebackers.
Anzalone saw Karsten's tweet, and responded to it.
Anzalone then quote-tweeted a chart created by PFF's Judah Fortgang, showing PFF's Raw Separation Prevented and On-Ball Grade (minimum 150 coverage snaps last season).
Up and right is better, and Anzalone is in the upper portion of that ideal quadrant. Campbell is also in that quadrant of the chart, as he showed marked improvement in coverage during his second season.
Anzalone is also frequently deployed as a blitzer in the Lions' defensive scheme. If not for missing a total of seven games last season, he likely would have had at least 90 pass rush snaps (according to PFF) for a third straight season. He also wears the "green dot" as the on-field signal caller for the Lions' defense.
Anyone who paid attention to the Lions' defense last season knows how important Anzalone is. When a different light was shone on that this week, he took an opportunity to tell the uninitiated.
