Dan Campbell says Lions made pass rush a priority, even as they insist on balance

The Detroit Lions are treating pass rush as an offseason priority, even if their overall production in 2025 suggested they were already generating plenty of sacks and pressures. In comments relayed ahead of the start of the next offseason program, Lions head coach Dan Campbell said the goal is to add “a little bit of juice” to the perimeter and in the middle, while still keeping the run stop as the foundation of how the defense plays.

The tension inside that philosophy comes down to timing. Detroit finished 2025 with strong traditional pass-rush numbers, including fifth in sacks, sixth in pressures, and ninth in quarterback hits, based on advanced tracking data cited in the report. The Lions’ 39 sacks also place them among the higher end of the league by team totals. But the staff believes the sack totals can be more than “good” if Detroit pressures quarterbacks sooner and more consistently.

Campbell’s emphasis is tied to a metric often described as “time to pressure,” which measures how long it takes before a pass rusher creates the first meaningful pressure on a quarterback. The NFL’s Next Gen Stats framework defines time to pressure as the time elapsed from the snap to the first moment of pressure, and it notes that an average pressure occurs around the high-2-second range. In Detroit’s case, the report says the Lions’ average time to pressure in 2025 was 2.86 seconds, ranked third-worst in the league.

Rather than abandoning its identity, Detroit is trying to tilt the balance toward earlier pressure without turning the front into a liability against the run. Campbell pointed to the need for quicker transitions from run-stopping looks to pass-rush execution, including techniques like stemming pre-snap to gain an edge at the snap. “I think that (pass rush) is a priority, but it’s still a priority when we talk about first, second down, stopping the run and then the transition to it,” Campbell said, describing movement and shifting as ways to speed up the moment the rush gets into the quarterback’s space.

That approach has shown up in personnel decisions that try to add pass-rush capability while also asking new bodies to justify their roles in every-down football. Detroit signed edge rusher D.J. Wonnum in March, adding an experienced outside pass rusher to the rotation. The Lions also agreed to terms with Payton Turner, a former first-round pick who can bring pressure as part of the defensive line mix. On draft weekend, Detroit added more front-seven depth, selecting EDGE Derrick Moore, along with interior and sub-package options Skyler Gill-Howard and Tyre West. At the same time, edge Al-Quadin Muhammad is no longer in Detroit after signing with Tampa Bay.

Campbell’s message to the players is clear: the niche has to remain productive, but it can’t become the whole job. The report says Detroit’s staff believes some of its newer pass-rush-oriented additions will have to be well-rounded enough to hold their end against the run, or they will not get the reps needed to affect games. For a defense built on getting bodies into the gaps early, the challenge is turning “more pressure” into “pressure sooner,” so quarterbacks feel it before they can fully set their protections and timing.

What to watch next is whether Detroit can tighten the gap between pressures and sacks by shrinking that time-to-pressure window, particularly on first and second downs. If the Lions’ defense becomes faster to the quarterback without losing its base run-stopping identity, the staff’s offseason bet should show up in down-and-distance outcomes, longer opponent drives ending earlier, and more pressure that forces throws before quarterbacks can reset.

And while Detroit did not make a headline-grabbing “single move” the centerpiece of its plan, the coaching staff seems determined to keep improving the same strategic engine, just with quicker execution. The next few months of training and preparation will also shape how quickly Aidan Hutchinson and the group around him can turn pressure opportunities into consistent, earlier threats, which is where the Lions believe their 2025 shortcomings can be corrected.