Tag: Kerryon Johnson

Lions 2019 rewatch: Week 4 notebook from Detroit’s thriller vs. Chiefs

The Lions largely outplayed the Chiefs, Stafford was better than MVP Mahomes, but Kansas City still won

The 2019 season rewatch project hits Week 4 with two undefeated teams clashing in Ford Field. The Kansas City Chiefs coming to Detroit is a great matchup and a fun game to revisit, even if the final outcome didn’t go Detroit’s way.

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Pregame notes

Darius Slay and Danny Amendola missed the game with injuries, the only regular starters out for Detroit. Both players left the second half of the Week 3 win in Philadelphia. The Chiefs were missing WR Tyreke Hill and LT Eric Fisher.

Lions wore the vintage uniforms with no logo on the helmets and plain blue jerseys/silver pants.

First quarter

Lions get the ball first and quickly march down the field. Kerryon Johnson is running decisively, getting downhill right away and attacking the hole. Matthew Stafford hits Kenny Golladay on a perfect pitch-and-catch up the seam for a big gain. Lions are using the pulling OL (usually RT Rick Wagner) effectively on the run. Great drive until it sputters inside the Chiefs 10. Stafford gets sacked on 3rd down, a coverage sack where he had over four seconds to pass but couldn’t find anyone. Matt Prater’s short FG puts the Lions up 3-0.

During that first drive, coach Matt Patricia challenged a spot on a Johnson run. The ruling on the field was upheld, creating a 3rd-and-1 instead of giving the Lions a first down. It’s an odd time for a challenge and the Lions picked up the first down on the next play anyway. In looking at the replay it’s clear Patricia was right in his assertion the spot was bad, but the officials don’t give that up very often and don’t here.

The Chiefs come out throwing and Patrick Mahomes is very good at choosing the correct option. Not all of his throws are pinpoint, but he hits third-string TE Deon Yelder twice on crossers and gets into field goal range.

Great pressure from Trey Flowers and A’Shawn Robinson on separate plays helps the defense hold eventually, and the Chiefs miss the FG attempt wide right. Mike Ford and Justin Coleman had nice drives in coverage. The broadcast feed of the crowd is as loud as I’ve heard a non-NFC North contest in Ford Field.

Stafford comes back firing too. Two defensive penalties help, but this is prime Stafford. He finds T.J. Hockenson on a sweet delayed-release route for a 5-yard TD. Marvin Hall’s speedy presence on the outside is impacting the safeties in the middle of the field and Stafford is happy to exploit it. Hall also drew a holding penalty on the drive. 10-0 Lions.

Second quarter

The Chiefs manage a field goal on a drive that spans the 1st and 2nd quarters, where Mahomes converted a 3rd down with a 26-yard run that probably could have gone for much more if really felt like risking his body a little. Two penalties helped the Chiefs too. Coleman makes a fantastic hit on Sammy Watkins in the end zone to physically separate him from a TD reception. It’s 10-3 Lions and the defense is showing confidence.

Outside of one pass (Watkins beating Coleman on a deep cross), the Lions coverage down the field remains very good. Safety Tracy Walker is consistently making the right read to deny Mahomes.

The Chiefs defense is settling in and attacking with more line gimmicks up front and it’s working. Stafford gets drilled on 3rd down as both Wagner and Dahl got beat cleanly. Jalen Reeves-Maybin strips the ball out on the punt return (great punt by Sam Martin too) but the Chiefs recover.

Lions defense opens the next drive in a 2-3-6 formation, with Tavai and Christian Jones playing EDGE and Davis the only real LB. Chiefs are in 11 personnel but TE Kelce is lined up wide. Mahomes misses a couple of open throws

Stafford gets walloped by three different Chiefs on the first play of the next drive. He fumbles but recovers. Wagner got badly beaten. Decker was the only lineman to win his battle. Golladay did land a nasty down block from his tight alignment that sent a Chiefs defender sprawling backward. The play gets negated by a defensive hold, but the Chiefs defense has figured something out here. Other than a nice Kerryon Johnson run–foiled at the end by Nick Bawden missing a block–this series is a disaster for the OL and the Lions offense. Even Frank Ragnow gets beaten badly twice, including a play where he’s (rightly) called for a hold.

First play for the Chiefs is a great run by LeSean McCoy. Lions are in a 2-man front again, this time with four safeties on the field. Both Tavon Wilson and Will Harris badly whiff on open-field tackles after a wicked cutback by McCoy. A run-heavy drive ends in a game-tying TD plunge by McCoy.

T.J. Hockenson is tasked with crossing the formation and cut-blocking the opposite EDGE/LB in the run quite a bit. He’s not good at it, diving too early. Chiefs EDGE Frank Clark is not happy with him and lets Hock know it.

The teams trade field goals to enter the half tied at 13. Kerryon Johnson continues to thrive. Mahomes hit Damian Williams on a simple RB wheel where Jarrad Davis was initially in great position but paused for a half-step and it created a window for Mahomes to throw a perfect strike.

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Owners approve change to allow a 3rd player to return from injured reserve

Last year the Lions used the I.R. recall on Kerryon Johnson and Austin Bryant

The NFL balked at making some more radical changes to the rules, but one measure that did pass during the voting at the virtual league meeting was to expand the injured reserve return list.

Owners approved adding one more player eligible to return from injured reserve during the season for each team. Now teams can bring back three players from I.R. instead of the two that were previously allowed.

It’s a rule change that would have come in useful for the 2019 Lions, who were decimated with injuries. Kerryon Johnson and Austin Bryant were the players activated off I.R. during the regular season.

One thing that did not change on the injured reserve front: players who can be recalled cannot go on I.R. until after the final roster cutdown. Last year, Bryant was injured prior to the start of the season but the team had to carry him on the 53-man roster initially until he could go on injured reserve with eligibility to be recalled. That cost another player a roster spot during the final cutdown.

Lions 2019 rewatch: Week 3 notes from Detroit’s win over the Eagles

Jeff Risdon’s notes from the Lions’ 27-24 win in Philadelphia after rewatching the coach’s tape

The first two weeks of the 2019 season left the Lions at a respectable 1-0-1 mark. Week 3 brought a trip to Philadelphia to face the highly-touted Eagles, which is where our season rewatch project takes us next.

I went back and watched the broadcast feed of the game, followed by the All-22 coach’s tape courtesy of NFL Game Pass. This was an entertaining game full of twists and turns, capped off with Matthew Stafford and the Lions coming up big in the clutch for the second week in a row.

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Notes and observations from the Lions’ 27-24 win in Philadelphia.

Pregame

The only Lions regular player who was out with injury was DL Da’Shawn Hand. The Eagles were missing starting WRs Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson as well as DT Timmy Jernigan. Jarrad Davis makes his season debut, while Taylor Decker is back after missing Week 2.

Lions wore blue pants with the white jerseys.

First quarter

The defense starts hit-and-miss. A Trey Flowers encroachment penalty on 3rd-and-3 extends the drive. Carson Wentz foils a good rush on the very next play and catches a communication error between CB Darius Slay and S Quandre Diggs for a big gain. Slay bit up on a short route–it looks like he was expecting the rush to force the throw–and Diggs never rotated over. If Wentz throws a better pass it’s six points.

Another 3rd down penalty, an iffy holding call on Justin Coleman, sets up a short field goal. The Lions DL had no problem controlling the middle of the formation against the run. Eagles up 3-0

Fun time! Jamal Agnew takes the ensuing kickoff to the house, 101 yards for the TD. Great blocks from Will Harris and Dee Virgin helped out, but Agnew made two guys miss and ran through another tackle. Matt Prater nails the conversion and it’s 7-3 Lions without an offensive play for Detroit yet.

Noting for future Lions reference: Eagles bring in Hal Vaitai as an extra tackle and run behind him. He blatantly holds LB Jahlani Tavai but gets away with it on an 11-yard run by Jordan Howard. On the very next play–the Eagles leave him in for several reps–he falls down trying to get a reach block on Romeo Okwara. They run behind him three times in four plays and the third one is a beautiful edge seal block on the right side on Devon Kennard to spring a 3rd-down conversion run from Miles Sanders.

Lions are consistently rushing four or five but Wentz has little issue avoiding the pressure. A huge scramble on a Jarrad Davis blitz sets up an easy TD plunge, 10-7 Eagles. Former Lions LB Chris Spielman is on the broadcast call and he’s rightly apoplectic about the defense abandoning the middle of the field against a mobile QB.

Detroit’s first offensive drive features mostly 12 (1 RB, 2 TE) and 22 (RB, FB, 2 TE) personnel and it works well. The OL, notably LG Joe Dahl, clears nice holes for Kerryon Johnson and the methodical drive caps with a Johnson TD from a yard out. Taylor Decker had a great block on the TD. 14-10 Lions very quickly into the second quarter.

Second quarter

No creativity to the Lions pass rush. It’s four guys trying to bull their way to Wentz. Flowers does an improvised twist after he’s initially stymied on an effort but that’s it. Downfield coverage is very good from Slay, Rashaan Melvin and Justin Coleman.

Sam Martin continues to have an outstanding season punting. Great directional punt pins the Eagles deep after the teams trade bad possessions. It leads to an interesting series for Jarrad Davis at LB.

Davis sat the prior series in lieu of Tavai. He missed being in the right place with his assignment two plays in a row but redeems himself with a fantastic punch-out of the ball to force the turnover. It was the second forced fumble against Miles Sanders on the drive after Okwara ripped it out a couple plays earlier. Okwara is working Vaitai, who is now in the game full-time at LT. LG Isaac Semualo is not playing well against Damon Harrison and Okwara either, and it very much feels like it’s that and not the Lions defenders playing great.

Love the gadget play reverse to J.D. McKissic coming right off the turnover. Aggressive call and it catches the Eagles overpursuing, something their LBs have shown all game. The drive stalls thanks to good red-zone coverage from the Eagles (Golladay has zero space) but Prater’s FG extends the lead to 17-10. Stafford was quick to throw the ball away rather than buy time and try to force things, playing conservatively for the FG.

Trend alert: The Lions continue to load up the line of scrimmage when the opposing offense goes to an empty backfield. They did this against the Chargers in Week 2 as well, primarily with six guys on the line. In this case, as happened against L.A., the LBs cannot drop fast enough to cover the middle of the field throw.

The Lions catch a huge break when Nelson Agholor fumbles shortly after making a catch on a quick-hit throw. Slay was right there but didn’t cause the fumble; Agholor just lost it. Slay picks it up and scampers into the red zone. Surprised the replay official didn’t overturn it as Agholor had the ball a lot less than what Calvin Johnson did no several of his overturned catches. Also, props to Wentz for hustling and making a nice touchdown-saving tackle on Slay. I can think of a few QBs who wouldn’t have done that…

The Lions offense gets too cute and has to settle for a field goal. Decker is progressively getting more upright in his base stance as the game progresses, a sign the back injury that kept him out of Week 2 is impacting him.

Last play of the half, the Lions rush three with Davis rushing in and Flowers dropping. Good blitz and Davis forces Wentz to flee to his left with all his WRs on the right. Flowers closes in and gets the sack. Side note: Wentz has already taken several cringe-worthy hits if you’re an Eagles fan. He does not protect himself nearly as well as Stafford does. Lions up 20-10 at the half

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Georgia great, Detroit Lions RB D’Andre Swift tabbed as instant impact rookie

Former Georgia football RB D’Andre Swift, now with the Detroit Lions, tabbed as an instant-impact NFL rookie.

USA TODAY has released its list of the 20 NFL rookies who could make instant impacts in the 2020 NFL season. Among those listed is former Georgia star D’Andre Swift, who was drafted by the Detroit Lions in this year’s NFL Draft.

Swift checked in at No. 7 on the list.

Via USA TODAY :

“Detroit Lions RB D’Andre Swift (second round / 35th overall): Since Barry Sanders retired in 1999, this team has enjoyed four 1,000-yard rushing seasons from three players, none since 2013. Swift totaled nearly 2,300 yards on the ground over his final two season at Georgia and has the tools to supplant oft-injured Kerryon Johnson, perhaps on an every-down basis.”

Also on the list was former Georgia kicker Rodrigo Blankenship, who went undrafted and was signed by the Colts. He checked in at No. 20.

We touched on that here. 

It looks as if Swift landed in a good spot in Detroit. He has former Georgia passer Matthew Stafford under center, one of the most prolific passers in the NFL, and will be competing for the starting job with former Auburn Tiger Kerryon Johnson, who is entering his third year and has had a hard time staying healthy.

Last week, Stafford, Swift, and former Bulldog, Lions tight end Isaac Nauta were seen working out together. Rumors surfaced that Swift was the favorite to win the starting running back job over Johnson, but the former Auburn back was quick to fire back at the critics who assumed he wasn’t staying in shape.

As the NFL begins to reopen its team facilities, we should get a better look at both Johnson and Swift as teams begin to practice for the 2020 season. Regardless on who is tabbed as the starter come September, Swift will see plenty of touches, especially through the air from that infamous Stafford side-arm.

Matt Patricia stresses competition over ‘starter’ status at RB

Matt Patricia stresses competition over ‘starter’ status at RB

Lions coach Matt Patricia joined the Rich Eisen show this week to talk about a number of topics. One of the more interesting points came when Patricia was asked about the battle between Kerryon Johnson and D’Andre Swift for the starting running back job.

Johnson has been the primary starter in both his seasons in Detroit when he’s been healthy, though that has been an issue. Swift is the team’s second-round pick and a very promising runner from Georgia who figures to see extensive action right away.

After joking that he was “good with the quarterback”, Patricia downplayed the importance of anyone being labeled a “starter” and instead brought up the competition and teamwork interplay.

“For me, we’re going to try to play whoever is going to help us in that particular play, that particular game, whatever it might be,” the coach said. “If you’re out there for the very first play, or you get out there on the second play, I don’t really understand what the difference is in a starter in that case.”

Patricia is ready to see how Swift fits and hinted at using multiple running backs in the same set, something the team has not done on more than a gimmick basis since the heyday of Reggie Bush and Joique Bell.

“We’re excited to be able to acquire Swift and get him on our team and seeing what he can do. Sometimes you put two or three running backs out there. We will see what happens.”

Lions ranked as the NFC North’s best at the offensive skill positions

The Detroit Lions ranked as the NFC North’s best at the offensive skill positions by Bleacher Report

The Detroit Lions might have finished in last place in the NFC North in 2019, but in at least one important area, the team ranks first. According to Bleacher Report, the Lions have the best set of offensive skill position players in the division.

It’s a collective ranking encompassing everyone on offense who is eligible to touch the ball in a normal play: quarterback, running back, wide receiver and tight end. Combining Matthew Stafford, Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones, Danny Amendola, T.J. Hockenson, Kerryon Johnson, rookie D’Andre Swift and more triumphs over any other NFC North package.

It’s unstated but obviously presumes that Stafford, Kerryon Johnson, Hockenson and Jones all return from their respective season-ending injuries of a year ago.

Personally, I think it’s a close competition between the Lions and Vikings, depending on how well Minnesota can replace Stefon Diggs. The Packers would win on just the QB-RB combination, but Aaron Rodgers has Davante Adams and, uh, welp to throw to. Chicago is a distant fourth.

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Georgia Bulldogs on the Lions: Matthew Stafford talks D’Andre Swift addition

Georgia football great Matthew Stafford and D’Andre Swift have teamed up on the Detroit Lions, and the former UGA QB is excited about it.

Matthew Stafford is excited to play with fellow Georgia Bulldog D’Andre Swift on the Detroit Lions this year.

Detroit used its second round pick to take Swift, and Stafford cannot wait to see what he will do in the Lions’ offense.

“As a player goes, he’s a back that can kind of do it all,” Stafford said of Swift in a Zoom call, per detroitlions.com’s Tim Twentyman. “I think he does a good job out of the backfield catching the ball and making big plays. They handed it to him a bunch and he was doing a great job running with it.”

Stafford, who played for Georgia from 2006-08 before becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft, knows what Swift is capable of. The two have already trained together as members of the same franchise along with another Dawg on the Lions, tight end Isaac Nauta.

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Swift joins a running back room that includes former Auburn ball carrier Kerryon Johnson and Alabama’s Bo Scarbrough. That’s some pretty legit SEC talent in the Lions’ backfield.

“I think it’s huge,” Stafford said of the Lions adding Swift to their backfield. “In the NFL everybody, but especially running backs, get dinged up and beat up here and there throughout a season, and really throughout games. The more guys you can have back there that can carry the rock and do a good job for you the better off you’re going to be.”

Lions: Kerryon Johnson replies to D’Andre Swift hype on Twitter

Georgia football vs Auburn Tigers has found its way to the Detroit Lions. AU’s Kerryon Johnson tired of hearing about UGA’s D’Andre Swift.

The Detroit Lions selected Georgia running back D’Andre Swift with the 35th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Swift will likely get the bulk of the touches at the running back position going forward, even with former Auburn ball carrier Kerryon Johnson, who’s had a solid start to his NFL career, on the roster.

Johnson is a good player, but there’s a reason Swift was taken by Detroit in the second round.

Fans have begun suggesting that Swift is coming for that starting position, but it appears Johnson harbors no animosity toward Swift. He may be growing tired of hearing about it, but at the end of the day they are teammates and it seems he genuinely wants Swift to succeed.

@LionsFanReport, a Lions Twitter fan account, tweeted a photo of Johnson enjoying the beach, coupled with a photo of Swift working with fellow Bulldog and quarterback Matthew Stafford.

The fan account was suggesting that Swift is coming for Johnson’s starting job.

“I assure you it’s scientifically possible to workout and NOT post about it…I’m with the ignorance tho if you wanna get started,” Johnson wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Johnson made it clear that he looks forward to working with Swift, rather than against him.

“Like imma want him to fail so i can succeed? Lmao that’s not how it works…they just don’t understand,” Johnson followed up on Twitter.

Johnson was looking like one of the NFL’s best young running backs during his first two seasons. However, injuries cut both of his seasons short.

At Auburn, Johnson was a problem for Georgia in the Tigers’ home win over the Bulldogs in 2017. In that Auburn blowout, Johnson took 32 carries for 167 yards and had two catches for 66 yards and a touchdown.

But the second time around, in the SEC Championship Game, Johnson was playing through a shoulder injury that he suffered against Alabama the week prior. In Georgia’s 28-7 win, Johnson only had 44 yards. It was Swift, though, who led all rushers with 88 yards that game. A freshman, Swift took a 64 yard sprint to the house in one of the most iconic plays of the Kirby Smart era.

Kerryon Johnson gets testy on Twitter over the D’Andre Swift hype

Kerryon Johnson set the record straight on the arrival of D’Andre Swift.

Running back Kerryon Johnson wants to coexist with his new teammate, D’Andre Swift. Johnson, the Detroit Lions incumbent starter, is in danger of losing his job to Swift, who the Lions drafted at 35th overall in the 2020 NFL Draft. But it seems Johnson harbors no animosity toward Swift, even if Johnson seems to be tired of fans suggesting his career is in jeopardy.

A Lions Twitter fan account, @LionsFanReport, posted an image of Johnson hanging out on the beach and a photo from Swift’s recent workout with quarterback Matthew Stafford. The fan account suggested Swift is coming for Johnson’s starting job.

“I assure you it’s scientifically possible to workout and NOT post about it…I’m with the ignorance tho if you wanna get started,” Johnson wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Johnson showed in a later tweet that he’s committed to working with — not against — Swift in the coming months.

“Like imma want him to fail so i can succeed? Lmao that’s not how it works…they just don’t understand,” Johnson wrote on Twitter.

Johnson was one of the more promising young running backs at the start of the 2019 season, but he suffered a knee injury which landed him on injured reserve. His rookie campaign in 2018 was also shortened due to injury. With Swift joining the Lions, Johnson is likely to see fewer touches in the coming seasons. With the lower volume, perhaps Johnson’s health will be less of the problem while working in a committee with Swift, the second running back selected in this year’s draft. But it’s clear Johnson isn’t the uncontested top running back in Detroit anymore.

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Establishing the 53: Rounding out the Lions’ backfield

Examining the Detroit Lions running backs room to determine how many players from this group could make the 53-man roster.

We are a long way from NFL training camps and even further from the regular season, but it’s never to 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.

This article is the first in a new series of articles at Lions Wire called “establishing the 53”, where we will be examining a Lions’ position group, predicting the Lions’ strategy, and projecting the players who have an inside track for the regular-season roster.

In this piece, we will take a deeper look at the Lions’ running backs.

Easy decisions at the top of the RB group

The Lions have a clear 1-2 punch combo at the top of their running backs group after returning starter Kerryon Johnson and drafting D’Andre Swift in the second-round (pick 35 overall). The only debate involving these two will be over which one starts.

Erik’s prediction: Johnson and Swift make the 53, Johnson starts Week 1

1st down thumper

While K.Johnson and Swift are capable of playing on all three downs, the Lions want to rely on an early-down thumper, and the fact that they didn’t add one in the offseason, speaks volumes about how they feel about Bo Scarbrough. Unless his production falls off a cliff in the pre-season, the smart money is on him beginning the regular season as RB3.

Wes Hills will also challenge for this role but he is still rough around the edges and was outperformed by Scarbrough in 2019. He has NFL potential and his talent is worth continuing to develop but he may need more time.

Erik’s prediction: Scarbrough makes the 53, Hills to the practice squad

Will the Lions keep four or five RBs?

If the Lions only keep four running backs there will be a strong camp battle between last year’s sixth-round draft pick Ty Johnson and this year’s fifth-round draft pick Jason Huntley.

Let’s take a look at their athletic profiles:

Height Weight 40-yard-dash Burst score
Ty Johnson 5106 213 4.4 120.15
Jason Huntley 5084 182 4.4 132.65

Both can burn up the turf, catch passes, and are capable kick returners — something an RB4/5 needs to be able to do to make the back end of a roster.

The first big advantage for T. Johnson has over Huntley is his deceptive size. He has proven he can hold up in the NFL, his year experience (63 rushes and 24 receptions) cannot be undervalued, and his improvement as the season progressed is worth noting.

Meanwhile, Huntley is roughly the same size at J.D. McKissic but faster and more explosive. Huntley can step right into the role McKissic has last season as a jitterbug runner with dynamic pass-catching skills out of the backfield (he had 134 career catches at NMST), while also legitimately challenging Jamal Agnew for kick return duties (he had five kick off returns for touchdowns in college).

Erik’s prediction: Lions keep five backs, both T. Johnson and Huntley make the 53

Erik’s Reasoning

Five backs may seem like a lot but you don’t draft four running backs in three years — two in the second-round at that — unless you plan on using them. The Lions are also a team desperate to establish the run, have injury concerns with several of their top options, and Swift/Huntley’s elite pass-catching skills will allow the Lions to potentially go with fewer bodies at other offensive skill positions.