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Detroit Lions: Extension Of Deandre Levy A Home Run

By Joe Chapp

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The extension of DeAndre Levy is a move that may go unrecognized throughout the league, let’s face it. Suh leaving the Lions is a deathblow by the “National Media” – the Detroit Lions are predicted to finish 3rd in the North, and if that wasn’t bad enough most think the Lions defense will fall back into mediocrity.

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However that’s not the case.

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Levy doesn’t  really believe one player makes a defense, “I don’t think it was just one guy, I believe it was a complete group effort. We’re a team”

He’s right, no one blamed Suh when the Lions had historically bad defenses, but will say he’s the reason that defense was great – or part of the reason last year.

Jason Jones is also getting sick of hearing about how bad the Lions losing Suh will hurt,  “I think some of (those concerns) are overblown,” defensive end Jason Jones said, via MLive.com.

The Lions signed LB Levy to a four year extension, Wednesday afternoon. To me, Levy is the key part of that defense.

Statistics show, As Levy got better so did the Lions Defense.

2012 (Lions Defense Ranked – 27th in points given up)

14 games, 55 tackles, 25 assisted and one interception.

2013 (Lions Defense Ranked – 15th in points given up) 

16 games, 85 tackles, 32 assisted and six interceptions (Led LB’s in Interceptions 2013)

2014 (Lions Defense Ranked – 3rd in points given up)

16 games, 121 tackles, 34 assisted, 2.5 sacks, one interception and one safety.

Now you’re likely saying to yourself, Suh commanded double teams and that’s true. Suh did make an influential prescience in that defense that can’t be matched, but you can cope with the loss, as I mentioned in my last article .

The Lions signed Levy to a four year extension, but to put into numbers how good Levy was compared to Suh it’s staggering.

Win Probability Added:

Suh: 1.27 WPA

Levy: 1.49 WPA

Positive Expected Points per game: 

Suh: 2.51

Levy: 3.56

Tackle Factor:

Suh: 0.94

Levy: 1.66

The stats prove Levy was unbelievable next year, but why does he get so much disrespect? He was hands down one of the best LB’s in football last year.  As statistics show.

Levy doesn’t get mentioned with Kuechly or David, It was all Suh. Basically.

Levy is a tremendous athlete just watching tape, he can go from sideline – to – sideline, and rarely misses tackles.

Reading as many articles as I have this summer, it baffles me how a defense can be good just because of the impact one player makes when they weren’t saying the same thing when Detroit was terrible on defense.

Were they?

Caldwell spoke on DeAndre Levy and the difference he makes.

"“Well, one of the things that I think is overrated a lot of times is the guys that make a lot of noise, and the ‘Rah-rah’ kind of guys. He’s not one of those guys. He leads by example and says very few words. But when he does speak, everybody listens. But nevertheless you can tell from Instagram that he’s pretty daring, he lives his life on the edge a little bit, but you can see out there on the football field that he runs, makes plays, is instinctive, and can do it all. He does a great job of setting the tone. The bar is pretty high, but the way he plays his position with the rest of the linebackers, he sets a great example for them.”"

Two years ago, I said Levy would be the Lions best player on defense in a few years, Last year he was. Needless to say I was blasted by Lions fans for selling Suh short.

There’s no disrespect towards Suh, he just didn’t fit into the Lions equation if they hoped on winning a Super Bowl.

It would make no sense to pay a defensive tackle, (as good as Suh is) quarterback money,especially the way the Lions payroll is constructed.

The mistakes the Lions have made, this isn’t one. This is a great day for the Lions, as they’ve secured one of the best LBs from leaving, a year after one of the best defensive tackles left.

Detroit needed to extend Levy, he’s the quiet leader who’s ready come game day.

That’s all Detroit needs, Detroit needs a leader like Levy, those are truly hard to come by. Until then, speculation is just speculation we really don’t know what the Lions will do, but we know they’ll come hungry just like the leader of the defense, Levy.

Next: Lions Optimistic About Chances, And Should

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