Detroit's defense evolved over the course of last season under the new schemes ushered in by first-year head coach Matt Patricia and defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni. There's a natural adjustment period that takes place with any new system, and we saw that last year for the Lions on defense.

By the end of the year, however, Detroit was playing some of the best defensive football in the league, finishing in the top 10 in total defense (10th), pass defense (10th) and run defense (8th).

This is a new year and a clean slate, but some of the growing pains this defense went through this time last year has been replaced with a level of comfort this spring in the second year in the scheme.

"I think it allows us to progress faster being able to kind of see around corners knowing what's coming up and what's expected for us to know in each phase of this offseason program," linebacker Jarrad Davis said Tuesday.