Four Verts: Dan Campbell’s Lions legacy is growing, while Cowboys’ defense has plummeted post-Micah Parsons

We’re three weeks into the NFL season, and teams are starting to give us a clearer picture of what they are. That’s good news for the Lions as a whole and the Browns’ defense. It’s not so good for the Raiders as a whole and the Cowboys’ defense.

Dan Campbell has made the Lions matter like they never have before

Dan Campbell has quickly established himself as one of the elite head coaches in the NFL, but the Lions’ thorough road win over the Ravens showed that he’s really got a handle on what this team should look like. Good coaches have fleeting moments of success; great coaches are able to sustain success through the mini-eras that each team cycles through. So far, it looks like Campbell is established as a great coach and the Lions’ machine continues to roll as they install new faces.

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Former coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn are gone and starting their own head coaching careers, and they deserve a lot of success that the Lions have seen over the past few years. This is the best stretch in franchise history. They’ve had great players in this century, even a Hall of Famer in Calvin Johnson, but they were never truly relevant in terms of winning games. That changed with the arrival of Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes, and doesn’t look to be stopping.

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Week 1’s loss against the Packers was tough, but as everyone can see now, Green Bay might have the best defense in football. Since then, Detroit’s gotten back to looking like the same old Lions that we’ve come to know, scoring 90 points over the past two weeks against Chicago and Baltimore. This is with a new offensive coordinator and an extreme youth movement at the interior offensive line of their offensive. The continuity of the skill players has certainly helped their transition under new offensive coordinator John Morton, but after the changes they’ve undergone with similar success to start the season, it’s time to start recognizing Campbell as the constant that keeps the Lions afloat. 

Walking into Baltimore and taking down a future Hall of Fame quarterback is a tall task, but the Lions managed to do it with their trademark offensive creativity and aggressiveness. Remember, Campbell called plays for almost half the season during his first year with the team after removing those responsibilities from then-offensive play-caller Anthony Lynn. He’s not just some rah-rah loudmouth barking football coach (although he is that, too). He’s got a very calculated plan and vision of what this football team is supposed to look like and how to marry different ideas and people toward the one goal of success.

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That is impressive as hell. The Lions might not win the Super Bowl this year, but that ultimately shouldn’t be the only metric of success. Campbell has made the Lions matter in a way they never have before and appears to be able to keep doing it as the circumstances change. The public perception of Campbell has come a long way since his boisterous introductory press conference where the kneecaps of 31 other teams were in immediate danger, but even a moment like that ties together his success rebuilding the Lions up to this point. Tracking what happens to this team over the coming years will be fascinating, but Dan is clearly the man with the plan. 

Without Micah Parsons, Cowboys have been unspeakably bad on defense

Predicting the NFL in any given season can be a fruitless affair. There are so many moving, unknown variables on each team that dictate success to the point that trying to be a Nostradamus-level prognosticator is normally a fool’s errand. However, sometimes it’s easy as hell to guess what’s going to happen with certain teams and it feels like just about everyone except Jerry Jones saw what was coming for the Cowboys this year. Jones trading Micah Parsons has been the biggest story of the young season, and the pile-up of truly atrocious defensive performances has only accentuated that trade and the fallout from it.

Here’s how bad the Cowboys defense is: Russell Wilson was still benched just a week removed from throwing for 450 yards and three touchdowns against Dallas. It meant nothing. Being able to shred Dallas’ defense is the expectation for teams this year. That performance was followed up at home by a major letdown against the Chiefs which led to Wilson’s benching. Caleb Williams just had the best game of his young career against the Cowboys! This defense is pitifully bad, with no real way to get meaningfully better before it brings their season to a dismal end, which is just about what everyone was expecting.

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Parsons was the ingredient that made Dallas’ style of play successful over the past few years. His ability to consistently get upfield and disrupt was the basis of the entire defense. Their defensive backs were able to play more aggressively and attack the ball with Parsons running around chasing quarterbacks. That’s gone — and with it, all of the warts in that style of play are rearing their ugly head. Boom-or-bust has become bust. Bend-don’t-break is broken beyond repair. 

According to TruMedia, the Cowboys are tied for 25th in pressure rate this season against non-play action passes (31.2%) and 26th in sack rate (4.4%). They’re last in the league in expected points allowed per dropback at .44, which functionally means every two passing plays attempted against the Cowboys is roughly equal to a full point of value. That’s simply not going to cut it. Their turnovers have plummeted, they’re the worst third-down defense in the league (53.7% conversion rate!!!!!) and they have allowed both the old players and the young to light them up for career days. 

There’s no telling what the Cowboys have learned from this debacle, but the rest of us have learned just how big of an impact Parsons made on their defense. They can’t even field one without him. Throw in the loss of DeMarcus Lawrence and the decline of their cornerback room and you get an abomination of a defense. That’s really a shame, because the offense had some nice moments this season before the CeeDee Lamb injury. Dallas is at least fun to watch because Dak Prescott is being forced into a shootout every week. Not fun for Cowboys fans, but the rest of us. 

Browns’ defense is dragging everyone to the sewer with them

Cleveland is still one of the worst teams in the league, to be clear. As long as their offense is in this state, they will lose the vast majority of the games they play, but their defense has given them a real chance to stay competitive each week. Despite their 1-2 start, the Browns’ defense has been one of the best in the league through three weeks and has punched some of the best offenses in the league right in the mouth. A healthy Bengals squad, the Ravens and the Packers is about as tough of a start to ask for, but they’re dragging everyone to hell with them. 

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Baltimore was eventually able to run away from Cleveland in Week 2 thanks to the usual sharp play of Lamar Jackson, but the Browns pummeled the Ravens’ run game into submission, allowing a success rate of just 29%. Derrick Henry ran for just 23 yards on 11 carries and a normally dominant rushing game was smothered by a defensive line playing out of their mind. Myles Garrett is still the showstopper here, but top-five pick Mason Graham has played well along with veteran defensive lineman Maliek Collins, who has been an absolute headache for opposing offensive lines. 

Through three games, the Browns defense’ ranks first in percentage of drives that don’t gain a first down at 50%. They also have a whopping 12.5% sack rate through three games and are allowing just 2.4 yards per carry. Running backs are struggling to even get to the line of scrimmage, and they’re getting consistent, heavy pressure on opposing quarterbacks. The back seven hasn’t been as consistent defending the pass when they don’t get home, but they’re still about a league average pass defense.

The Browns’ Week 3 win over the Packers showcased the full potential of this defense. They got pressure on almost half of Green Bay’s dropbacks, sacked Jordan Love five times and held Josh Jacobs to under two yards per rush. That’s insane. 

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That’s all. Not going to get carried away and say they’re about to start winning games or anything, but the defense is super legit and at least builds a solid base for what’s possible if they can nail their next quarterback selection in the offseason. 

Raiders have been a disappointment to start the Pete Carroll era

New year, same bad Raiders. Las Vegas made big splashes this year with the hiring of Pete Carroll and the blockbuster trade that brought Geno Smith to the team to lead their offense. Things were supposed to be different coming off of another disappointing season and the unorganized mess left behind by Antonio Pierce. This was supposed to be a grown-up version of the team that existed last year, with proven experience coming in at quarterback and head coach.

Well, the Raiders are still looking like the Raiders that this generation of football fans has grown up with: bad. 

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The only point of this team that is working as intended, for the most part, is the play of Smith. Outside of the Week 2 “game” against the Chargers, Smith has been a positive influence on the Raiders’ offense and has provided them the fourth-highest rate of explosive plays (12.7%) despite his surroundings being less than ideal. On the whole, the Raiders rank 26th in expected points added per play (-0.07), but they do rank 17th in expected points added per dropback (0.02).

Despite drafting Boise State superstar Ashton Jeanty with the sixth pick in this year’s draft, the Raiders haven’t been able to run the ball at all. Jeanty has 47 carries for just 144 yards this season as the Raiders are in the bottom three in just about every metric that measures rushing efficiency. Honestly, Jeanty still looks like a damn good running back that was worthy of being selected high in the draft. The ability to churn yards and get moving in a hurry are still there, but he is really fighting for everything he gets.

The Raiders rank dead last in yards before contact at 0.13 yards. On average, Jeanty and the other Raiders runners barely make it to the line of scrimmage before getting popped by a defender. On the flip side, they rank 19th in yards after contact (2.7), which is fairly impressive considering the physical restrictions that come with getting met at the line of scrimmage consistently. Unsurprisingly, the Raiders lead the NFL in rushes that go for zero or fewer yards at a hair over 31%.

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With All-World tight end Brock Bowers dealing with a nagging knee injury, the Raiders have been fairly constipated on offense this year. Their 1.56 points per drive ranks 27th in the league and certainly isn’t enough to help buoy a defense that’s been below average to start the season. Carroll kept on defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, who (once again!) has been tasked with putting together a credible defense with not many parts. So far, the Raiders have gotten average-to-below-average results, ranking 16th in points per drive (2.03), 20th in expected points added per play (0.03) and 21st in opposing offensive success rate (43%).

That defense isn’t great, but it’s been just effective enough that the Raiders would be able to compete if the offense wasn’t among the worst in the league. Carroll, Smith and new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly need to come up with some new ideas in a hurry before their season circles the drain before the end of October.