ALLEN PARK -- The Lions drafted Jarrad Davis last year to be a vocal leader, for the defense and for the linebackers. These things, of course, take time. They gave him a rookie year playing next to a mainstay in Tahir Whitehead.

Then, they tore many of his surroundings down.

It's been a long offseason of repair to the linebacker room around last year's first-round pick. Detroit jettisoned mainstay Tahir Whitehead and NFL veteran Paul Worrilow out of town, leaving Davis as the only starter. The team then signed Devon Kennard from the Giants, Christian Jones from the Bears and Jonathan Freeny from the Patriots as the replacements.

It was part of a natural transition from Teryl Austin's 4-3 scheme to the hybrid one Matt Patricia and Paul Pasqualoni will now run, which requires different body types. But it was also another move to put that much more on the shoulders of last year's first-round pick.

When the offseason program rolled around and the Lions brought out players to speak to the public for each side of the ball, Matthew Stafford was the man for the offense and Davis was the choice on defense.

Davis said he learned plenty in his first season in the NFL, including how quickly one must assess and learn from struggle. It was an up-and-down year for him, though he finished in a good place and popped on some all-rookie teams.

The offseason changes to his position room showed him something new, though: the business side of the NFL.

"It definitely shows that it's real," Davis said. "Everybody talks about it, and everybody talked about it last year, but you didn't see a lot of changes. Everything was kind of set in stone after the draft.

"To see how the tide can turn, to see the other side, it is eye-opening."

Football is a game built on brotherhood, but the NFL is a league of harsh math. Rosters sit at close to 100 players in the summer, and they must trim to 53 players by early September. Veteran contracts aren't guaranteed, and teams playing under a salary cap often give in to the reduced prices they can find in younger players in the draft -- players like Davis.

Whitehead manned the middle linebacker spot for the Lions in 2016, but when his contract year arrived and his team spent its first pick on his position, the clock had already started. Whitehead moved to 'Will' linebacker and seemed to find a more natural home. He cashed in on a three-year, $19 million deal with the Raiders this offseason. The business wasn't exactly unkind to him, but it did sever the relationship he was building with Davis.

Such is life in the sport of dollars. Worrilow signed a one-year deal to play with the Eagles. It'll be his third team in three years, and the past two have drafted his position and made it clear his time was temporary.

Davis is Detroit's building block, though he knows that's only in theory right now. The 96 tackles, one interception and one fumble recovery he made in 14 games as a rookie showed some flashes of the sideline-to-sideline, three-down thumper he can be, but he has to get more consistent and versatile if he wants to be treated like a foundational piece for many years to come.

That's why he looks to what the Lions brought in at the position as more than just support. Kennard is 18 pounds heavier and projects more as a combo linebacker and edge defender in Patricia's scheme. Jones is more of a passing-down kind of player. Davis will man the communication for the defense and in turn key the run defense behind Detroit's beefed-up interior. The roles are different, for now.

They're all trying to earn the favor of a new coaching staff.

"This is something I have to tell myself, that I've got to get with the times and keep rolling," Davis said. "I can't feel bad they want to bring extra guys in, I can't feel bad they want to do anything.

"Competition creates championship football, so you have to continue to work every single day. I can't slack, and I can't let them slack, and they can't let me slack."