Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Here are a few developments from the first few days of training camp that represent some change from the initial pre-camp thought process.
The Detroit Lions get their first day off from on-field activities in training camp on Thursday. It’s a good time to reset for the players and coaching staff to reevaluate where they are in the ramp-up to the padded practice sessions that begin over the weekend.
Here are a few developments from the first few days of training camp that represent some change from the initial pre-camp thought process.
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New Lions WR Denzel Mims believes he’s ‘got the playbook down already’ after being traded from the Jets
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Denzel Mims has been looking for a fresh start for over a year. The physically gifted wideout believes he’s found a place where he can thrive in Detroit.
The Lions traded with the New York Jets for Mims last week. Mims never really worked out with the Jets since being a second-round pick in the 2020 NFL draft out of Baylor. He had asked for a trade out of New York a year ago but the Jets never found any takers.
Now that he’s in Detroit, Mims is ready to prove that the Jets were the problem, not him.
“It was a fresh start for me, a new start for me,” Mims said during Lions training camp of the trade. “I was excited to get here, I wanted to get here right away, they got me here right away so I could get started and get acclimated to the team. I’m just blessed to be here, honestly.”
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Mims has already shown the speed and ability to make impressive catches down the field while getting to know QB Jared Goff and his new Lions teammates. He’s also been working hard to master offensive coordinator Ben Johnson’s intricate playbook.
“I already got the system kind of down,” Mims stated. “Been in early, staying late. Pretty much got the playbook down already.”
That remains to be proven, of course. Even so, it’s encouraging to hear Mims putting in the extra time and focusing on making the most of his second chance. In New York, Mims wasn’t exactly notable for his work ethic or dedication. The chance to prove himself in Detroit is off to a flying start.
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A look at the Detroit Lions training camp battles at wide receiver from Lions Wire’s Russell Brown
Say what you want but the depth at wide receiver for the Detroit Lions is better than it’s been in a few seasons. While there might be some low expectations for some players in the group, the Lions have built something that they’ve been intending on building since the arrival of this regime.
That something is competition.
By drafting, trading and signing players such as Antoine Green, Denzel Mims and Marvin Jones Jr., the Lions should be able to find some consistent contributions from one, if not all three players this season.
For Antoine Green, he’s a seventh round pick from North Carolina in the 2023 NFL Draft. He’s a deep ball specialist that averaged 19 yards per catch for the Tar Heels while possessing sub-4.5 speed. In 2022, he had 798 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns. It wouldn’t be surprising if he was picked over some veteran receivers to make the 53-man roster.
As for Mims, he’s a former second round pick from the 2020 NFL Draft. While I wasn’t his biggest fan coming out of the draft, he does have sub-4.4 speed and could be a player that just needs a change of scenery. We’ve seen the Lions have success with players changing teams such as John Cominsky and Charles Harris. Mims does only have 42 receptions for 676 yards in his career so my expectations are low. But again, he adds depth and competition for training camp.
When you look at the rest of the roster, players such as Amon-Ra St. Brown, Marvin Jones Jr., and Kalif Raymond should be safe to make the roster. Jameson Williams will make the roster but won’t be available for the first six weeks of the season with his suspension on gambling.
Another veteran that the Lions have is Josh Reynolds. After posting 38 receptions for 479 yards and three touchdowns, he’s coming off his best season with Detroit. He should easily earn a spot on the roster as a 3rd or 4th receiver.
It’s possible that the Lions cut a player such as Denzel Mims for a player such as Maurice Alexander, Trinity Benson or Tom Kennedy. However, I don’t see that being the case. Between those three players, they’ve totaled 17 receptions for 305 receptions and 33 games played.
Regardless of what happens, I’d have low expectations for that final roster spot when it comes to loading the stat sheet on offense. Much of the Lions production at receiver should come from Amon-Ra St. Brown, who posted a career 106 receptions in 2022.
While the Lions did have five receivers last season, I could see them carrying six receivers this season. Here’s how I’d project the Lions wide receiver room for this season:
The way I see it, the final roster spot at receiver will come down to Denzel Mims and Antoine Green. With how rocky Mims career has been so far, I’d expect the Lions to go in favor of Green.
However, they could put Green on the practice squad to start the season and they could give Mims a six-week trial while Jameson Williams is out of the lineup. If Mims doesn’t produce, they could move on from him while activating Williams and promoting Green to the 53-man roster.
Regardless of how it turns out, it’ll be interesting to see how training camp turns out for the Lions depth chart at wide receiver this summer.
Several 2025 NFL draft picks have already been traded before the 2023 NFL season begins
Another trade involving a draft pick that is nearly two years away took place in the NFL this week. The New York Jets and Detroit Lions agreed to a deal that involves not one but two selections in the 2025 NFL draft.
The trade sent 2020 second-round pick Denzel Mims from New York to Detroit. The Jets dealt the disappointing wideout for the very low compensation of a pick swap in the late rounds of 2025. New York will receive a 2025 sixth-round pick from Detroit but only if Mims makes the Lions roster. The Jets sent back a 2025 seventh-rounder that is not conditional.
This deal joins a small but growing list of picks in the 2025 draft that have already been traded. Among the others:
Trades of far future picks like this didn’t use to happen in the NFL.
Detroit Lions Podcast pre-training camp mailbag answers many questions about the Lions and several specific players
The latest edition of the Detroit Lions Podcast is now available. This one is in mailbag form, with logistical difficulties preventing a live show this week.
In this mailbag, I fielded questions from the podcast’s Patreon Slack chat in advance of training camp. Among them:
All that and more get covered.
This was recorded Wednesday morning, before the Denzel Mims trade and the release of kicker Michael Badgley. Both of those topics do come up, and the Badgley take here does not age well. C’est la vie!
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Madden NFL 24 ratings for the Detroit Lions wide receivers, headlined by Amon-Ra St. Brown
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It should come to nobody’s surprise that Amon-Ra St. Brown is the top rated receiver for the Detroit Lions in Madden ’24. After a season where he led the Lions with 106 receptions and 1,161 receiving yards, St.Brown earned an 87 overall rating.
For St. Brown, he has the highest catching on the team with a 97 overall rating for that skill. The next best is Kalif Raymond with an 88 overall rating for catching.
As for the fastest player on the team, it shouldn’t be surprising to see Jameson Williams at the top with 98 speed. The next closest to him is Kalif Raymond with 93 speed. Here’s the overall ratings for each wide receiver:
Yesterday, the Lions traded for New York Jets receiver Denzel Mims. He’s rated a 70 overall with 92 speed and 78 catching.
Basing the Lions receiver room off the overall ratings of each player, their depth chart should go as followed: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Marvin Jones Jr., Josh Reynolds, Kalif Raymond and Denzel Mims.
With Jameson Williams being suspended for the first six weeks of the season, we’re unsure if players such as Tom Kennedy or Antoine Green will get a chance to play on the 53-man roster. One thing is for sure, the Lions wide receiver room has more talent now than they’ve ever had.
Breaking down what the Detroit Lions have traded for in new WR Denzel Mims, formerly with the Jets
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The Detroit Lions made the move to trade for New York Jets wide receiver Denzel Mims on Wednesday night. The Lions executed a pick swap of late-round draft picks to acquire Mims.
Mims, 25, is entering his fourth NFL season. He arrived in New York as a second-round pick, No. 59 overall, in the 2020 NFL draft out of Baylor.
He was selected so highly in large part because of his athletic potential. At a hair under 6-foot-3 and a well-muscled 207 pounds, Mims showed explosive athleticism and downfield playmaking ability for Baylor. He scored 28 receiving touchdowns in his final three college seasons for the Bears, going over the 1,000-yard mark twice (2017 and 2019).
The athletic testing at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine validated the impressive blend of size and speed from his Baylor tape. Mims clocked the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds, with a 38-inch vertical leap, a 3-cone time of 6.66 seconds and a clocked time of 22.4 MPH.
All those physical gifts and impressive production at Baylor have not translated to the NFL, unfortunately. He’s caught just 42 passes in 92 targets for 676 yards in three years with the Jets, and Mims is still looking for his first NFL touchdown. He’s been credited with seven drops, or one for every six catches. The career catch rate of 45.7 is nearly 20 percentage points lower than what Eric Ebron logged (64.6%) in his four seasons with the Lions.
Mims has struggled with the increased precision and timing of playing outside WR in the NFL. His poor initial releases and unwillingness to fight through jams have been notable with the Jets, never really improving despite (or perhaps because of) coaching and quarterback changes.
Last summer, I was asked about Mims in the context of the Cleveland Browns being interested in a trade at that time. The Jets were prepared to move on from Mims last August but wound up keeping him for another ill-fated year.
Here is my rather blunt assessment of Mims from last August, via Sports4CLE and Cleveland.com:
Nothing we saw from Mims in New York in 2022 changes my opinion expressed here. His lack of attention to detail, “looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane” assessment and questionable work ethic didn’t appear to get better with another chance in New York.
Depth receivers typically need to contribute on special teams, but that is not something Mims has shown he can do. He played just three total special teams snaps in his 30 games in New York, none in his first two years.
The hope is a change of scenery will coax out the best in Mims. The Lions gave up next to nothing to acquire him, and his contract expires after the 2023 season. It’s a low-risk move that builds the competition down the depth chart at wide receiver. If it doesn’t work out, the Lions can cut bait without worry.
Mims finally got his wish to be traded
The Jets did indeed find a trade partner for Denzel Mims. Per Connor Hughes of SNY, the Jets are sending the wide receiver to the Detroit Lions.
BREAKING: The #Jets are trading Denzel Mims to the Detroit Lions, sources tell @SNYtv
— Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) July 20, 2023
The teams will also swap picks in 2025 as part of the deal. The Jets will receive a conditional sixth-round pick while the Lions will get a seventh-round pick. The condition is based on Mims making the 53-man roster for the Jets, per Tom Pelissero.
The condition on the pick swap is that Mims makes Detroit’s 53-man roster. So it’s a free look at a player who was talented enough to go 59th overall in 2020 and should be plenty motivated in a contract year. https://t.co/eucGKD4ufl
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 20, 2023
It was reported earlier Wednesday that the Jets were looking to trade Mims and would waive him if they couldn’t. They didn’t officially cut him Wednesday, keeping open the trade possibility. Sure enough, late Wednesday night, a deal was done. It took a year, but Mims finally got his wish to be traded out of New York. He gets his fresh start in Detroit under head coach Dan Campbell.
Mims was entering camp squarely on the roster bubble following three years without a touchdown and with plenty of time spent in the doghouse, going back to his rookie season in 2020. He now joins a Lions’ wide receivers room that includes Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams (who is suspended for the first six games for violating the league’s gambling policy), Marvin Jones, Josh Reynolds, Kalif Raymond and more.
As for the Jets, this opens the door for some of the young players, including undrafted free agent Jason Brownlee, to make a case and be the No. 6 receiver. That will now be one of the interesting camp battles this summer.
The Lions and Jets are doing a late-round pick swap in the deal for Mims to head to Detroit
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There will be a new wide receiver in the Detroit Lions training camp right after it starts. The Lions are trading with the New York Jets to acquire fourth-year wideout Denzel Mims from New York,
According to a report from NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, it’s a conditional 6th-round pick in 2024 headed to New York as compensation for Mims. New York will include a 2025 seventh-round pick as well.
The Jets were looking to unload Mims after two underwhelming seasons. There were reports indicating the team was prepared to release Mims if they didn’t find a trade partner. Detroit GM Brad Holmes was intrigued enough with Mims, a second-round pick out of Baylor in the 2020 NFL draft, to send two late-round picks and take a chance on the reclamation project.
In three seasons (30 games) with the Jets, Mims caught 42 passes on 92 targets for 676 yards and zero TDs. He caught 11 passes in 10 games for New York in 2022, including four starts.
Should the Patriots pursue Denzel Mims?
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The New York Jets may move on from wide receiver Denzel Mims if they’re unable to find a last minute trade partner, per the New York Post’s Brian Costello.
Mims was a second-round draft pick in 2020. He played in 30 games and tallied 42 receptions for 676 yards. The former Baylor standout came into the NFL as a speed threat, running a 4.38-second 40-yard-dash at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine.
The New England Patriots were believed to be a potential landing spot for the wide receiver, but they ended up selecting safety Kyle Dugger with their first selection in the draft that year. Mims was even projected to go to New England in some mock drafts.
He could still be an option for a Patriots organization looking to find a playmaking wide receiver. Speedy wide receivers are common in the NFL as of late, and New England could benefit from getting another one.
It was reported on Wednesday that the Patriots were one of two teams showing interest in acquiring Mims.
Two teams that are in the mix on Denzel Mims are the #Steelers and #Patriots, according to league sources. | @HeavyOnSports
— Matt Lombardo 🏈 (@MattLombardoNFL) July 19, 2023
The former Baylor star is in the final year of his rookie contract, which makes him a prime trading candidate for New York.
He could benefit from a change of scenery, and New England could benefit from having another speedy body at the wide receiver position. If he ends up on the free agent market, it would make sense for the Patriots to at least get a look.
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