Potential worries about the 2024 Detroit Lions: The safety spot

In one week, the Detroit Lions kick off their 2024 season. It’s one of the most anticipated seasons in Detroit history, with perhaps the highest expectations ever for the team.

And rightly so.

The defending NFC North champions were within a half of making the first Super Bowl in franchise history. Nearly all the key pieces from that 12-5 team return. GM Brad Holmes and his crew prominently addressed the two biggest weaknesses that held back the 2023 Lions, namely the pass coverage and pass rush, in an offseason that local and national pundits widely lauded.

These Lions figure to be among the NFL’s best in 2024. They’re top contenders to win it all, led by a head coach in Dan Campbell, who has proven quickly to be among the best in the game. Like every other contending team, these Lions do have some vulnerabilities.

They extend beyond the vague existential dread of losing All-Pro players to injury; no team can claim immunity from the injury bug, not even the deepest in the NFL–which these Lions might be at many positions (RB, LB, TE).

What are some issues that could derail the highly promising Lions season?

They’re not fun to think about, but there are some concerns about Detroit heading into the 2024 campaign. First up in the series: the safeties.

It’s a group with a lot of potential, headlined by second-year standout Brian Branch, who is moving from slot corner to full-time safety. Last year’s starting postseason tandem, Kerby Joseph and Ifeatu Melifonwu, are both back too. Yet there are questions about the moving parts in Aaron Glenn’s revamped secondary and more man-coverage-oriented scheme.

Safeties

Moving Branch to a full-time safety role is a very smart move. It keeps Detroit’s top defensive playmaker and budding star on the field all the time, something that he couldn’t do while playing the slot as a rookie. Branch is poised to thrive in an expanded role, one he played at Alabama and did so exceptionally enough to earn high first-round draft grades.

As for the rest of the safety room, there are questions.

Kerby Joseph has been sporadically outstanding in a cover safety role in his first two seasons. He will make plays. He will also give up plays, between his tendency to overestimate his own closing speed and his unreliable tackling. Joseph has battled some injuries, notably a hip issue that required surgery.

Joseph has worked on those weaknesses, but it’s different at meaningful game speed against receivers he doesn’t see in practice in offenses he doesn’t frequently practice against. He’s going to be playing more single-high safety in 2024, based on the offseason looks we got at Aaron Glenn’s secondary. It should suit No. 31 well. Should…

Iffy

Ifeatu Melifonwu got bumped from his starting role by Branch despite a torrid finish to the 2023 season. “Iffy” really clicked as a box safety late in the year, effectively blitzing and stuffing runs. His short-area coverage and ball skills also shone. From Week 14 to Week 18, Melifonwu had the fourth-best overall PFF grade of all safeties.

That big spike in Melifonwu’s play coincided with him finally being healthy and put in an appropriate role for the first time in his three-year career. Prior to that, the oft-injured safety had just 20 tackles and two passes defended, no sacks or TFLs in Detroit’s previous 24 games. He bounced between outside CB and a dual safety role that weren’t great fits, aside from being a fixture on the weekly injury reports.

Melifonwu is once again injured, and his status to start the season is unknown. He had struggled throughout training camp in covering anything or anyone that wasn’t in front of him in the more man-heavy scheme. Melifonwu could be the best third safety in the league. Health and role will matter a lot, however.

Deeper depth

The depth behind the top three is completely unproven. An undrafted rookie from the 2023 practice squad, Brandon Joseph is a coverage specialist. The preseason was a very fitting performance nutshell for No. 40’s game; Joseph pulled down an interception and thwarted some pass attempts with savvy positioning and quick reactions in coverage. He destroyed a swing pass by doing so. He also ran past several tackle attempts, notably diving at Cordarrelle Patterson’s long-since-gone feet in the Steelers game–one of three missed tackles by Joseph in that game.

This year’s undrafted rookie, Loren Strickland, is a freight train of a hitter but a major work in progress in coverage in jumping from Ball State to the NFL. Strickland showed quick progress in training camp, moving from the bottom of the depth chart to push veteran CJ Moore off the roster.

GM Brad Holmes eschewed chasing after available, affordable veteran safeties like Justin Simmons, Quandre Diggs and Xavier McKinney, trusting his own existing safety room. It’s a gamble that upgrading the cornerbacks and pass rush in front of them will make life easier and give Branch, Joseph and Melifonwu more of a chance to shine.

All could be fine on the safety front. Could be.