Fans believe Lions need Malcolm Rodriguez to fill void at LB

In this week’s SB Nation Reacts surveys, we asked Lions fans two questions:

1. Are you confident the Lions are headed in the right direction? (weekly poll)
2. With Alex Anzalone on IR, which LB needs to step up?

For the third consecutive week, 99% of Lions fans believe the team is headed in the right direction. This is the fifth time the Lions have hit the maximum mark, the most times amongst all the SB Nation fan bases.

For our second question, we asked fans which linebacker needed to step up with Alex Anzalone on injured reserve, and the fans believe the pressure is on the new starting duo of Jack Campbell and Malcolm Rodriguez (73% of the vote landed on these two players). With Rodriguez being the player who is stepping into Anzalone’s vacated WILL role, fans feel like he’ll be the one who needs to elevate his game the most.

With Campbell already in a starting role, the only noticeable change to his responsibilities will be to assume the green dot helmet and relay the defensive play calls, which is something he did previously in camp.

For Rodriguez, his responsibilities will expand an even greater amount, as he will be stepping into a starting role. Fortunately, this is also familiar territory for Rodriguez. After starting at WILL for the majority of his rookie season, he spot started last year, including in the NFCC game after Derrick Barnes was lost to injury. And while he technically has not started a game this season, Rodriguez has filled an important role in three-linebacker sets. In all of the 35 games Rodriguez has played on defense, he has seen over 50% of defensive snaps in 14 of them, so this larger role should be within his range.

To get a closer look into the minds of Lions fans, here are a few of the explanations from the comment section of the original article, lightly edited for length and clarity:

• Mike Sawson: “The Lions defensive leader has fallen and Jack Campbell must pick up the flag he left behind and lead the charge forward.”
• 2Jeremy_Smith77: “Campbell will definitely pick up some of the slack as will Rodrigo who will move into AA’s spot, all season it’s been the next man up. Detroit has had to overcome some major injuries upfront on D and just seems to keep moving forward.”
• GrammarJester: “I picked Rodrigo since he’s directly taking AA Will LB spot. But I think they’ll all have to step up. Campbell, Rodriguez, Neiman, and Nowaske.”
• Lee County Flydog: “I took Rodrigo too. Had a nice rookie season, then kinda fell in the depth chart last year. Now he’s been thrust back into the thick of it and I’m sure he’ll be up to the task.”

In addition to our team-specific polls, SB Nation also ran a national poll involving the Lions this week, asking if the Lions would cover the 7.5-point spread set by the folks over at FanDuel Sportsbook. Once again, the national audience is overwhelming behind the Lions, with 88% of NFL fans believing that they’ll win by over a touchdown.