We are a long way from NFL training camps and even further from the regular season, but it’s never too early to examine and speculate about the Detroit Lions roster. Currently, the Lions have 90-players on their roster, and come September, there will likely be some difficult decisions to make when determining their final 53-players.
Previously, in this new series of articles at Lions Wire, we rounded out the running backs group, and in this piece, we will take a deeper look at the players who complement them — the fullbacks and H-backs.
What happened in 2019?
After missing his rookie season will a torn ACL, Nick Bawden appeared to be a man with a purpose during training camp. Goal-line carries, swing passes, button hooks, and of course lead blocking, Bawden was deployed in several situations, especially near the goal line. Surprisingly, all of that disappeared — save lead blocking — once the regular season rolled around.
Bawden saw 125 snaps on offense, had zero rushing attempts, four receptions for 17 yards, and graded out (per Pro Football Focus) as a well above average pass blocker and underperforming run blocker.
In Week 11, Bawden went down with another knee injury, was placed on injured reserve, and was replaced in the lineup with rookie tight end/H-back Isaac Nauta.
Nauta would go on to see 41 offensive snaps over the final six games — 34 came as an H-back –, he recorded two receptions for 13 yards, graded out (per PFF) as an above-average pass blocker and was average as a run blocker.
At-a-glance comparison:
| Games played | Off. snaps per gm | Rec per gm | Yards per rec | Pass Protection | Run blocking | |
| Bawden | 10 | 12.5 | 0.4 | 4.25 | Well above average | Below average |
| Nauta | 6 | 6.83 | 0.33 | 6.5 | Above average | Average |
Bawden was the Lions’ first choice last season and when he saw that field he slightly outproduced Nauta in each category, save the most important — run blocking. Nauta didn’t light the world on fire as a run blocker either though and he was below Bawden in most of the above categories, but he deserves some leeway as he was a rookie and playing out of his natural tight end position.
Special teams
The numbers on special teams also slightly favor Bawden. He played in all four phases — kick coverage, kick blocking, punt coverage, and punt blocking — and averaged 17.8 special teams snaps per game.
Nauta averaged 13.7 special teams snap over his six games, and while he started out participating in all four phases, his numbers are lower than Bawden’s mostly because he was removed from the kick-off coverage unit over the final four games.
From a performance perspective, both were close in their PFF grades with Bawden getting the slight edge.
Conclusion
This will likely be one of the closer battles in training camp and could easily come down to overall team philosophies on offense and special teams. Do they want a bruising lead blocker or a positional flexible option?
Based on what we saw in 2019, Bawden appears to be the preferred option and it wouldn’t be at all surprising if he opens up camp with an impactful role. The main factor keeping him from being locked into the roster is he is a fullback only on offense, and he has had two significant knee injuries in as many years.
Meanwhile, Nauta has been fully available, showed he has the potential to fill two roles on offense — as a third (blocking) tight end and H-B –, as well as a contributor on special teams, and it’s reasonable to expect his game to grow as he develops in his sophomore season.
At the end of the day, this is a specialty position (7-12 offensive snaps a game) and in order to fill it, you need to be one of two things: flexible enough to fill more than just one role, and/or elite at what you do.
Bawden may be better at what he does than Nauta is right now, but because he is limited in his roles, he needs to be exceptional at them — which, save pass pro, he is not at this time.
Erik’s prediction: Unless Bawden enters camp and blows it up, Nauta’s position flexibility and availability likely carries an advantage at that’s why he gets my nod for the 53, sending Bawden to the practice squad.