Progress picks for Lions, Bucs

This past April, the Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers spent two of the top three picks in the NFL draft on a pair of defensive tackles. Eight months later, Ndamukong Suh's Lions defeated Gerald McCoy's Bucs 23-20 in overtime on Sunday, realistically ensuring that Tampa Bay, like Detroit, will be watching the playoffs at home. Which team came away with the better player on draft day? And as both teams prepare for the offseason, what are their biggest needs heading into the 2011 season?

At Football Outsiders, we use a few different metrics to compare defensive players. One of these is called defeats, which is any play that results in a loss of yardage, a turnover and/or a stop on third or fourth down. We also can separate these into rushing and passing plays. Here's a look at the rookie seasons of every defensive tackle drafted in the first round in the past five years:

To read more about whether Gerald McCoy or Ndamukong Suh has had a better rookie season and learn areas of improvement for both teams, you must be an ESPN Insider.

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Email
• Subscribe