Monday open thread: Matthew Stafford aside, who will be the most important Lions player in 2018?

The Detroit Lions’ roster is anything but set for the 2018 season. In fact, over the next two months, we’re likely going to see a major overhaul in personnel. During a typical season, teams change somewhere around 30 percent of their roster from year-to-year. However, with a whole new set of coaches on staff, the Lions are likely to change more than that.

That being said, there is still a set of contributors on the roster right now that is sure to be key parts of the 2018 team. Obviously, Matthew Stafford is at the top of that list, coming off one of the best seasons of his career. But who else will be a key figure on the team in 2018? Today’s Question of the Day is:

Aside from Matthew Stafford, who will be the most important Detroit Lions player in 2018?

My answer: Obviously, I could be bold and predict a player that isn’t currently on the roster, but I’ll go the more traditional route instead. Jarrad Davis may be the most important player on the Lions defense next year.

The Lions defense obviously has the biggest room for improvement and Davis will be expected to make a big jump in 2018. Considering the Lions’ new head coach, Matt Patricia, has a lot of experience coaching linebackers, I hope he’ll be able to get every inch of potential from Davis.

With the way Davis finished 2017, there’s enough reason to believe he’s already shown a lot of improvement. With a good coaching staff, and hopefully better players around him, Davis could be poised to become a huge difference-maker in 2018, and in the aspects of the game the Lions need it most. If Davis can both help plug the Lions’ leaky run defense and improve in coverage, Detroit’s defense could improve exponentially.

Your turn.