In the first article submitted on why the Lions defense will be better in 2015, I alluded to the team still being in possession of its best defender. When most think of the Lions best defensive player that phraseology immediately conjures images of Ndamukong Suh. However, looking beyond the headlines it becomes apparent DeAndre Levy is the Lions best defender and has been for some time now. Please don’t misunderstand my words as an attempt to belie the impact of Ndamukong Suh. On the contrary, I fully concede that Suh was the Lions most dominant defender during his tenure. I merely wish to forward the premise there is a distinction between being a team’s most dominant player and being its best.
Permit me the leeway to illustrate this point by taking an example from basketball. As a Lakers fan living in SOCAL I had the privilege of attending games during the early 2000’s when Shaquille O’Neal (Shaq) and Kobe Bryant (Kobe) shared the same court. There was always tension between the two stemming from the debate over who was the NBA’s best player.
In his prime, Shaquille O’Neal’s ability to physically dominate double and triple teams was of such an epic scale history had to memorialize him as the most dominant force of his era. Kobe Bryant was the antithesis of O’Neal in virtually every respect. Where O’Neal was a one-trick pony, who was almost wholly reliant upon his size and strength; Bryant was an athletic marvel who could use superior athleticism, a refined skill set or heightened awareness to game situations to make his impact. And therein lay parallels between Ndamukong Suh and DeAndre Levy. Like O’Neal, Suh is a bludgeoning force who succeeds at his craft almost exclusively due brutish strength. Levy on the other hand is more like Bryant in that he has a more varied and sophisticated skill set that allows him to impact the game in whatever fashion the situation dictates.
One of the earliest in-game recollections I have of DeAndre Levy proving himself a superior player to Ndamukong Suh occurred in 2011. Longtime Lions fans will recall a brief period when there was a rivalry of sorts between the Detroit Lions and the San Francisco 49ers. I recall how 9ers coordinator Greg Roman kept using variations of wham and trap plays against the Lions defensive front, hemorrhaging the defense with chunk run plays. Ndamukong Suh was powerless to stop the opposing offensive onslaught as the interior of the 49ers offensive line had sufficient strength at the point of attack to negate his power.
While the interior of 9ers offensive line pitched a stalemate against the Lions defensive front, DeAndre Levy broke the impasse by diagnosing 9er formations then darted into the opposing backfield to blow up a series of rushing attempts by Frank Gore. In a bit of foreshadowing as to how Lions fans would embrace Suh over Levy I recall the crowd cheered in unison as Levy derailed the 9er rushing attack. Then the stadium filled with the sound of ‘Suuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh’ reverberating throughout the building. I recall asking someone sitting beside me, wasn’t it Levy that just made that play. To which my neighbor responded, ‘yeah but saying “Suuuuuuhhh” is way cooler’ … ‘just go with it man.’ Despite his stellar play, Levy has been the forgotten man on the Lions defense, which begs the question “Who is DeAndre Levy?”
DeAndre Levy is….
One might say DeAndre Levy is the world’s most interesting man. Levy made national headlines recently, shocking the nation by posting Instagram images depicting his offseason ‘wing walking’ activity. Longtime fans of the franchise are accustomed to Levy’s adventurous offseason activities as he’s scaled volcanoes and trekked the Amazon, sustaining himself on a diet of frogs in the not too distant past. While Levy does his best every offseason to dethrone Dos Equis’ spokesperson for the title ‘world’s most interesting man’ his offseason isn’t completely comprised of activities that do not have a direct bearing on football. Reportedly, those activities just occupy the first half of his offseason.
According to Peter King of the Monday Morning Quarterback, “The second half is spent in Waukesha, Wis., with a couple of fellow Wisconsinites—Texans lineman J.J. Watt and Bengals guard Kevin Zeitler—training under Brad Arnett. Arnett calls Levy ‘freakishly strong.’ At 235 pounds; he’s one of the smallest linebackers in the NFL, and he has actually lost weight since leaving Wisconsin in 2009.”
“You look at the guy and you say, no way he plays linebacker in the NFL, Arnett says. “But he’s so explosive. One day we put 700 pounds on a bar for deadlifting. Everything they do is so competitive, and Zeitler (6-4, 315) couldn’t move it. We’ve got the music cranked, they’re yelling and screaming at him and he can’t do it. “‘Dre throws his belt back on and says ‘Zeitler get out of the way,’ and he locks it out. Then he looks over at Zeitler and starts shrugging the weight and says, ‘How’s this?’ ”
Such is the DNA of DeAndre Levy; a fearless competitor who answers challenges both on and off the field. Take the 2013 season under Jim Schwartz for example. The Lions secondary struggled mightily to manage their coverage duties so DeAndre Levy was asked to assume more responsibilities down the field. Not only did Levy accept the challenge, he mastered it. Addressing Levy’s 2013 performance in coverage, Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press writes: “According to Pro Football Focus, Levy graded out as the fourth best linebacker out of 132 qualifying linebackers in coverage for 2013. Quarterbacks had a 57.5 passer rating with one touchdown and six interceptions when throwing his way. Only Seattle’s star cornerback Richard Sherman surpassed Levy’s six interceptions.”
A New Challenge Awaits
In 2014, Defensive Coordinator Teryl Austin issued a new and vastly different challenge of his team’s best defender when he asked Levy to emphasize on run stopping. Levy once again responded to this challenge by crushing it! At season’s end, he led the NFL in solo tackles with 117 and ranked 2nd behind only Luke Kuechly with 151 total stops. He also finished the season with a 16.6% run stop percentage, the best of any linebacker in football. In successive seasons, Levy proved himself the best cover linebacker in the NFL then as an encore, established himself as the best run stopper at his position. Replicating this feat for a defensive lineman like Ndamukong Suh would mean ranking within the top 5 in sacks one season, then being among league leaders in tackles for loss as a follow-up.
Ndamukong Suh stole all the headlines for the 2014 Lions. Fans rallied behind Suh with such fervor the 2014 season became a coronation of sorts elevating Suh to the status of NFL royalty. While some of those accolades were deserved, DeAndre Levy’s 2014 performance was even more worthy of praise. After all it was Levy’s hot start to the season that gave the defense the traction needed to pave the way for 11-wins. It was Levy’s ability to seamlessly assume the leadership mantle Tulloch vacated due to injury in week 3 that kept the defense on a historically good pace. And finally, it was Levy and not Suh who became the first Lions defender since Stephen Boyd in 1998 to win a defensive player of the month award. Levy’s unique ability to instinctively impact both coverage and run defense make him a rare foundational piece around which the 2015 Lions defense should be built.
Despite his production some Lions fans are hesitant to embrace Levy as the team’s best defender, claiming his success was an extension of Suh’s impact on opposing offensive fronts. To those I retort: What is Mike Singletary’s legacy without Dan Hampton? What about that of Ray Lewis void the services of Tony Siragusa, and later, Haloti Ngata? Then there’s the troubling career of Derrick Brooks that may never have been so Hall of Fame worthy absent contributions from Warren Sapp. Football is the ultimate team sport. No running back can set records without a quality offensive line. No quarterback can build a long term legacy of success absent quality receiving threats at wide out and/or tight end. Likewise, it’s true DeAndre Levy established himself as the team’s best defender with the aid of Ndamukong Suh. With Suh gone one can’t help but wonder whether Levy’s production, and that of the entire defensive unit, will taper off in 2015. In part 3 of this series we’ll explore why there’s ‘Ngata’ chance that happens.
