"I told you guys at the combine I was back there with the defense, we were going through all those cut-ups from last year with Shep (Sheppard) and the staff. I love this now," Campbell said. "There's so many things that you take in, you're like, 'Alright, what do we do well? What do we not? Where do we go from here? This is who we lost. Here's some pieces that we added. What do we need?' And so really the way Shep's done it, which I love, is we've kind of given ourselves options."
Anzalone's ability to cover in the pass game allowed the Lions to keep three linebackers on the field on some passing downs in lieu of bringing in a fifth defensive back. The Lions played base defense a league-high 66 percent of the time last season and finished ninth in the NFL on third-down defense, holding opponents to just a 36.9 conversion percentage on the game's most important down.
Playing more base allows a defense to dictate matchups and personnel packages to the offense a little better while continuing to stay strong against the run, as the Lions' defense ranked in the top half of the league in run defense last year.