Getty Tracy Walker flattens Evan Engram with a tackle.
The Detroit Lions have plenty of obvious big players on the team, but they also have some underrated stars in the making and that might be especially true on the defensive side of the ball.
Which player takes the cake as the most under-appreciated player the Lions have, though? Recently, that idea was explored by Cynthia Frelund of NFL.com, who picked out one player who fit this bill for every team in the NFC. When it came to the Lions, safety Tracy Walker was the selection.
Frelund explains:
“When defensive fronts and backfields work together well, the result is fewer points allowed, fewer first downs allowed, more sacks and interceptions and a whole lot more pressures (even if they don’t turn into sacks). The Lions’ defense tied for the second fewest sacks (28), ranked third-worst in terms of pressures generated (per my computer vision) and allowed 26.4 points per game (26th). This is my way of saying that the defense was not a source of strength, and the front didn’t help the back, or vice versa. Walker led the team in tackles as a safety (100), and his ability to limit yards earned when he was targeted in coverage ranked 10th among safeties who play the same positions … but Walker did it without the kind of up-front help some of the guys ranked ahead of him had.”
The Lions hope Walker can get more appreciated in terms of his standing on the team and in the league, but it’s clear with the chance they are giving him that they envision this being the case and then some into the future.
For now, though, Walker remains under the radar. That might not always be the case in the future, however.
Tracy Walker Stats
Early in his career, it’s easy to see the leadership role that Walker has taken on, and that isn’t just limited to the locker room. So far, in just a few seasons, Walker has put up 124 tackles and 2 interceptions. 103 of those tackles came last season during the 2019 league year.
Walker has also been impressive as a locker room leader as evidence of this scene in 2019, when he broke down the Detroit locker room after one of the team’s wins.
“Great job. Great effort!”
Go inside today’s locker room celebration. #OnePride
“Hey hell of a win today man, that’s the way to keep fighting. We just got to continue to build on this week and continue to improve,” Walker said to the team in the aftermath of the victory.
When the Lions traded fellow safety Quandre Diggs last year, they dealt a team captain, but it’s more than possible the team envisions Walker in that vocal role moving forward, and it’s possible they can be expected to get just that from the young defender. They might also get a sneaky great playmaker on the back end who has his best days in front of him.
Indeed, Walker was a big reason the team moved on from Diggs in the first place. They drafted the safety just two short years ago and have big plans for him in the team’s defense along with Will Harris.
If he’s able to continue on this path, it’s likely Walker won’t be under-appreciated for much longer at all.
Lions Defense Called Free Agency Winner
Getting Walker some help was a huge goal this offseason and the Lions have managed to do it in free agency. After a horrible pair of seasons under Matt Patricia, there’s already been some big changes on that side of the ball. How will that impact the team when all is said and done? The returns will be very positive if this new piece is to be right.
In a piece breaking down some winners and losers of free agency, Pro Football Focus and writer Ben Linsey took a closer look at what the Lions have done, and found them to be a winner. Here’s a look at what he wrote on that:
“The spotlight is on Darius Slay, particularly after he publicly acknowledged last night that he wants out of Detroit, and as of Thursday morning, a deal has been put in place to send Slay to the Eagles. That is not ideal for the Lions. Despite the down year from a grading standpoint in 2019 (56.4 PFF grade), Slay remains one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL. During the five-year stretch from 2014 to 2018, he ranked eighth among qualifying cornerbacks in overall grade, and he routinely draws shadow assignments against the opposing team’s best wide receiver, making those results all-the-more impressive.
As all that trade speculation took place, the Lions went about improving their coverage to soften the blow of his inevitable loss. They signed former New England Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins, a player who has been outstanding in coverage and as a blitzer for New England over his career but struggled when traded to the Cleveland Browns. He’s an intriguing option for a Lions team that needed an injection of talent into their linebacking corps. The hope is that the transition to Matt Patricia’s defense is smoother than the one Collins made four seasons ago in Cleveland.
Detroit then addressed the secondary with two more moves, trading for Patriots safety Duron Harmon (shocker, I know) and signing former Atlanta Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant. Both players were drafted in 2013, and neither has recorded an overall grade of 65.0 or lower over the course of their NFL careers, rarely dipping below 70.0.
Harmon has been a rangy playmaker on the back end of the Patriots’ defense at free safety. He is one of just eight safeties with 10 or more regular-season interceptions over the past three seasons. Trufant is a 6-foot cornerback who came into the NFL with sub-4.4 speed, and he figures to fit well into a Lions defense that plays a lot of press-man coverage. He’s not quite the same player as Slay, but he has shown in Atlanta that he is fully capable of being the No. 1 guy on the outside. Both players, along with Collins, should improve the Lions coverage in 2020 despite the loss of their top player.”
The Lions still theoretically have a hole at pass rusher but they did add another cornerback in Jeff Okudah that figures to help Walker out. If Julian Okwara develops on the edge from the draft class, some of this punch up front could be found.
Those players might only help their more underrated teammate Walker look even better starting in 2020.
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