Lions pass defense was top 5 before Houston and Delmas and Berry(mid Minnesota game) went down. Wright stunk without Delmas on his side and Smith/Harris/McDonald are terrible thus why 2 are not on the team and Smith is the 4th CB behind a rookie and Lacey. See the Thanksgiving Day preview as to where the Lions ranked before Houston/Delmas went down. And the score was 0-0 mid 2nd quarter by the way and McDonald came in got beat for both passing TDs against the Packers. And if you say we played some terrible passing offenses in the first 10 weeks, take a look at the terrible passing offenses the Lions play this season other than Green Bay, Houston, maybe Atlanta and Chicago twice.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/tag/_/name/james-bond
Wright/Smith/McDonald/Harris/injured Spievey/injured Houston(vs GB) was the worst thing I've seen since 2009/2008 Lions secondary.
Bentley's a rookie but the bar is set low with Wright. Remember Berry only had .5 game experience going into last season and did solid on the outside in nickel. Bentley has more talent and was actually drafted unlike Berry. They had the same number of OTAs and TCS of 1 each as Berry missed most 2010 TC with an injury. Bentley is unproven not definitely bad for now. We shall see.
Lacey fits the slot, better than Wright IMO because he can tackle much much much better. Lacey had better coverage though still poor coverage(but better than Wright) and much better run defense than Wright, watching the Colts games. Plus if you are believer of pass rush masks bad DBs, the Lions had 100 more pressures than the Colts last year. Lacey actually started a Super Bowl as well(over Tim Jennings starter for the Bears). So Lacey has a fighting chance on this roster in the slot. Lacey trying to cover a deep ball is a nightmare but keep him underneath and he can do alright.
Houston can get the job done as the number 1. Delmas needs to get healthy ASAP. Coleman appears to be beating out Spievey so that should make some of you happy that the Spievey experiment is over. But Coleman is another unknown. Wendling the Lions are actually 3-0 with Wendling playing signifcant snaps in a game(at Tampa 2010 and beat Bears and Raiders last year), although he played poorly vs Raiders.
Point is, if Houston/Delmas stays healthy and the Dline does it's job the Lions can be average with this secondary and I know the Lions can outscore a lot of teams if not average in the secondary. Delmas missed until after the bye or Houston gets hurt and Smith comes in they are in big time trouble, especially after the bye. I would love to find a better 4th CB but pickings are always slim even with camp cuts.
