Tag: Marvin Jones

Lions players helping their communities amidst times of crisis

Several Detroit Lions players and coaches have been recognized for helping their communities during the COVID-19 crisis.

Given all that is going on in the world right now, it is refreshing to get some good news.

Several players on the Detroit Lions have taken it upon themselves to help others in these trying times. Whether it is providing food and supplies to first responders on the front lines of the COVID-19 epidemic, or helping communities rebuild after natural disasters, these men have shown that they are much more than just football players.

Members of the Lions organization such as starting center Frank Ragnow, running backs coach Kyle Caskey, and head coach Matt Patricia have already done a lot for their communities in recent weeks, but there have been several other players who also deserve recognition for what they have done.

On Easter Sunday, a two-mile-wide tornado tore through the southeast side of Mississippi. In the center of the storm was the town of Bassfield, where Detroit Lions safety C.J. Moore was born and raised. The small town, with a population of just over 200 people, was ravaged by the storm.

All of this destruction, on top of a global pandemic, wasn’t enough to stop Moore and his twin brother A.J. from returning home to help. The two young NFL safeties loaded up on supplies and went to Bassfield. There, they were able to distribute cases of water and toiletries to nearly half of the town’s population.

Moore is looking to make as much of an impact on the field in 2020 as he has in his community. Brought to the team as an undrafted free agent in 2019, he secured a spot on the 53-man roster as a core special teamer and extra safety.

Offensive lineman Oday Aboushi may not be able to help those suffering from the novel coronavirus in the way his siblings, who are health care workers in New York City, have been able to, but that hasn’t stopped him from providing aide to the people of his hometown. The Brooklyn, New York native has done his part by providing food and protective gear to the health care workers on the front lines of the epidemic.

Aboushi wasn’t the only Lions offensive lineman to help out health care workers though. Backup tackle Tyrell Crosby bought dinner for the staff of the Valley Hospital Corelab in his hometown of Las Vegas.

Wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr. helped the community of San Diego, where he lives in the offseason, by buying meals for 400 staff members of the Scripps Health Hospital.

These Detroit Lions players have set great examples of what it means to be an NFL athlete. Despite all that is going on in the world, they stepped up and did what they needed to do to help the people of their community.

Re-signing Danny Amendola, deep draft class gives Lions options at WR

Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones and Danny Amendola are the only WRs on the Lions roster, and all have contracts ending after 2020

The Detroit Lions helped fill their gaping hole at wide receiver by re-signing pending free agent Danny Amendola over the weekend. Bringing back the talented, productive slot receiver for another year means Matthew Stafford will have his top three targets from his stellar 2019 start back on the field in 2020.

In Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones and Amendola, the Lions have a formidable trio. However, those are currently the only three healthy wideouts on the team’s roster — and all are in the final year of their contracts. There is still a need for the Lions at wide receiver, it’s just not as immediate.

Thankfully, this is a ridiculously stacked draft class at WR. Don’t just take my word for it though. From NFL.com analyst and former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah in his pre-combine conference call.

“I’ve got 27 wide receivers with top 3-round grades in this draft,” Jeremiah stated enthusiastically. “And consider average 31 are taken. We had a max of 35 taken in, I believe that was in 2017. So this is a really phenomenal group of wideouts. Not all those guys are going to go early. They’ll end up spreading throughout the draft. But it’s really a good group.”

It’s a similar state to when the Lions drafted Golladay in the third round in 2017. At that point, the team had Jones, Golden Tate and T.J. Jones as the entire receiving corps. Tate and T.J. Jones were gone by the middle of 2018. The same thing could happen again, which is why it’s critically important for the Lions to tap into the deep well of prospects at the position in the 2020 NFL Draft.

That doesn’t mean Jerry Jeudy in the first round, though the Alabama standout is worthy of strong consideration at No. 3 overall. It could mean Penn State’s K.J. Hamler or Clemson’s Tee Higgins in the second. It might mean Ohio State do-it-all K.J. Hill or Florida’s Van (son of ex-Lions WR Shawn) Jefferson in the third. Perhaps it’s Senior Bowl revelation Quartney Davis from Texas A&M or slick Texas Longhorns slot man Devin Duvernay on Day 3.

Options. They are aplenty at WR in the 2020 NFL Draft. The journey to sort out those option for the Detroit Lions continues this week at the scouting combine in Indianapolis.

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Behind Enemy Lines: 5 questions with Lions Wire ahead of Week 15

Find out what Jeff Risdon of Lions Wire thinks will be some of the key matchups and issues in Week 15’s game between the Lions and Bucs.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are headed to the Motor City to take on the Detroit Lions this week, and I was able to catch up with managing editor of Lions Wire, Jeff Risdon to discuss this week’s matchup. We talked injuries, offensive and defensive schemes, as well as frustrations.

Marvin Jones Jr. went down for the remainder of the season. How does losing him impact QB David Blough?

It’s a big blow. Jones was tied for 2nd in the league in TD receptions and his ability to make tough catches down the field was a big part of the Lions’ attack. Kenny Golladay and Danny Amendola are the only legit NFL wideouts left on the roster, so the Lions passing game is now much easier to defend.

The Buccaneers’ high-powered offense averages 29.1 points per game. What do the Lions need to do to slow them down?

Detroit’s defense is frustrating to watch. They are passive and uncreative, choosing to read and react to the offense instead of trying to dictate the action. Blitzes, stunts, zone blitzes, those types of things can disrupt the Buccaneers, but they’re just not something the Lions are comfortable doing. At minimum, the tackling needs to improve. Only two teams have missed more tackles all year than Detroit. 

David Blough looked like a seasoned vet on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, that didn’t carry over to last week’s game. With the Buccaneers’ young secondary and a defense allowing 29.3 points per game, which Blough do we see on Sunday?

Blough is not scared and the moment isn’t too big for him, two very important attributes. The issue for him is he isn’t used to the speed of the NFL game yet. I expect Blough to have a few shining moments interspersed with bad throws and delayed decisions.

The Bucs’ run defense is best in the league allowing just 75.5 yards per game. With the Lions’ struggles to run the ball, do they continue to push the issue and attempt to run, or just air it out as much as possible?

I would air it out, but I’m not offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. We might see a 70/30 pass-to-run mix, but the Lions will not abandon the run. The ability to grind out time and avoid getting into a shootout with such a potent offense will keep the Lions from just throwing all the time…even if the run almost certainly won’t work.

Who wins and why?

The Buccaneers’ two best qualities — explosive passing offense and run-stuffing defense — directly counter what the Lions’ biggest weaknesses are. The talent level appears pretty even with all the injuries, but the Lions simply don’t have an answer for Chris Godwin even with Mike Evans out. Unless the Lions defense can create some takeaways and cash them into points, Detroit doesn’t have enough to take down the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay wins by 12.
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Lions Highlights: Marvin Jones TD gives Lions 14-7 lead on Thanksgiving

Detroit Lions Highlights: Marvin Jones TD gives Lions 14-7 lead on Thanksgiving

The Detroit Lions have scored two unanswered touchdowns in their Thanksgiving Day matchup with the Bears. After Chicago took the lead, Detroit answered with a 75-yard touchdown to Kenny Golladay.

Minutes later, the Lions took the lead when QB David Blough found Marvin Jones for his second touchdown pass of the game. Check out Jones’ ninth touchdown catch of the season below:

The Silver (and Blue) Lining: 3 positive takeaways from the Lions loss at Washington

This week’s Silver Lining identifies 3 positive takeaways from the Detroit Lions Week 12 loss, including Bo Scarbrough’s continued success, improved run defense, and the Lions trio of wide receivers reliability.

The Detroit Lions took their (3-6-1) record into Landover, Maryland to take on the Washington Redskins and their lowly (1-9) record, in what should have been a fairly routine Lions victory — someone must have forgotten to explain that to the team.

Perhaps I am the jinx for the Lions, as the third installment of the Silver (and Blue) Lining follows a third straight Lions loss. In a game that the Lions only helped their draft position — they’re currently slotted to pick 7th overall — there were some positive takeaways for the team.

Bo Scarbrough is the real deal

The Lions are still playing with a running back by committee, however, the snaps for Scarbrough are starting to lean in his favor as he saw 51% of the offense plays. In just his second career game, which was also his second career start, Scarbrough finished the game with 98 yards on the ground with 18 carries — averaging 5.4 yards per attempt.

With Ty Johnson and J.D. McKissic both healthy, we haven’t seen what Scarbrough can do in the passing game yet, and may not as McKissic has made us completely forget about Theo Riddick.

Scarbrough brings an angry, downfield running attack that the Lions, who have struggled to run the ball for the better part of 20 years, has been missing. Scarbrough won’t outrun or make a lot of defenders miss him, but he will run through them — as he’s proved in each of his two career games.

As the Lions have completely fallen out of the playoff picture, the newly anointed starting running back should continue to see more playing time and get more reps under his belt.

Defense against the run is coming together

Over the years, the Lions defense has been used to getting gashed by future Hall of Fame running back, Adrian Peterson. This season was a different story, as the Redskins running backs were held to just 86 yards collectively for the game. The Lions mustered three sacks, an interception, and a fumble recovery, not to mention they were missing Trey Flowers.

The Lions have yet to show a solid defensive effort on all levels, but with Damon Harrison and Mike Daniels holding the middle of the line in the last two games, they have shown that they can hold the rushing yards to a minimum.

Receiving trio causing problems for defenses

It is sort of a pick your poison when it comes to the Lions receiving corps — namely their top three options.

Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones, and Danny Amendola have all been the game leaders for receptions and receiving yards at different points this season. While the stat lines for this particular game may not be flashy, the trio of receivers hauled in 12 of Driskel’s 20 completions and had 128 of his 207 passing yards — with the offensive line unable to give Driskel a clean pocket for most of the game.

  • Kenny Golladay — four receptions for 61 yards
  • Marvin Jones — five receptions for 46 yards
  • Danny Amendola — three receptions for 21 yards

Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones continue to thrive despite tight coverage

Golladay and Jones rank among the most productive WR tandems in the league despite ranking at the bottom of yards of separation per catch

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One of the first things scouts look for in watching wide receivers is how consistently well they get open on their routes. While that is a very important attribute, the Lions receivers are proving that they can still thrive even though they’re often well-covered.

Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones are both having very impressive 2019 campaigns despite often being smothered by opposing coverage.

Per Next Gen Stats, Golladay is dead last in the NFL in average yards of separation per catch at just 1.9. Jones’ 2.2 figure is tied for fifth-worst. The Lions are one of two teams with two players in the bottom 20. The other is the New York Giants, featuring former Lions WR Golden Tate as third-worst at 2.1 yards of separation per catch.

It has not slowed down the productivity of the wideouts. Golladay is tied for the NFL lead in touchdown receptions with eight through 10 games. He’s tied with D.J. Chark from the Jaguars and…teammate Marvin Jones.

Both are on pace for over 1,000 receiving yards and double-digit touchdowns. Golladay ranks fifth in yards per reception with his 18.7 figure. Jones has a catch rate over 75 percent, the best of his career and near the league lead for players with at least 50 receptions.

It’s proof getting open isn’t everything for wide receivers. Having Matthew Stafford’s pinpoint accuracy into small throwing windows has certainly helped, but they’ve done just fine (though not as prolifically) with Jeff Driskel at the helm, too.

 

Wide receivers have been a silver lining for the Lions

Detroit Lions wide receivers have the most receiving yards over the last four weeks of any NFL team by a wide margin

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The wins have been tough to come by for the Detroit Lions lately. Don’t blame the wide receivers.

Detroit’s wideouts have been doing an amazing job all season. However, it’s in the last month where Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones and company have really thrived.

In fact, no group of wide receivers has caught passes for more yards over the last four games than the Lions wideouts. Detroit is the only team to have its receivers top 1,000 yards.

The Lions are way out in front of the pack. Second-place Kansas City is over 160 yards behind, while the Giants are in fifth place with 335 fewer receiving yards by wideouts.

Graphic courtesy NFL Inside Edge

Jones, Golladay and Danny Amendola have each racked up at least one game over 100 receiving yards and another game with at least 90. Marvin Hall is the only other Lions WR to even see a target in that time, with two receptions for 96 yards since Week 7.

The Silver (and Blue) Lining: 3 positive takeaways from a loss in Chicago

Introducing the Silver (and Blue) Lining, where we at Lions Wire identify three positive takeaways from the Detroit Lions most recent game.

A Week 10 battle in the Windy City saw the Detroit Lions fall to the Chicago Bears, returning to the Motor City with a 3-5-1 record.

As Lions fans, we tend to get down on our team a lot easier than a lot of other teams do — we are starving for success in Detroit, I get it — but there are positives you can take away from every game.

Thus I bring you, the first-ever Silver, with a hint of Honolulu Blue, Lining.

Jeff Driskel looked good

This bullet point was pegged even before we found out that Driskel was only made aware of him being called on to start at quarterback the morning before the game. Once word came out on the short notice, I wanted to put an exclamation point on the heading.

A few bad passes and an interception wasn’t enough to sour the day Driskel had. I kept wondering why they wouldn’t let him loose and throw the ball downfield and see what the Lions had with their backup. For much of the game, it appeared as if Driskel was told to play it safe, rather than try to move the ball downfield and air it out. On one of the plays where Driskel took a shot, he connected with Kenny Golladay for a 48-yard touchdown.

Driskel can also move, the Lions ran several read options in which he was able to scramble and he moved the ball very well. When the game ended, Jeff Driskel was the top rusher of the day for the Lions, with 37 yards.

With Matthew Stafford listed as day-to-day, Driskel could see the field more this season and if he gets reps, the Lions have a very formidable backup quarterback, not to mention he has Stafford to give him advice.

The defensive line played well

The Detroit Lions defensive line tallied five sacks in the game, on a day where Mike Daniels made his return to the active roster. Trey Flowers led the way for the Lions on defense, and showed the reasons why he was brought to Detroit.

Bears running back David Montgomery rushed for 67 yards, but was held to 3.5 yards per carry. If the Lions defensive line can continue this type of play, this should help the struggling secondary turn things around.

Marvin Jones continues his tremendous season

Five catches for 77 yards on six targets is how Jones finished the day. Are those the flashy numbers? No. Are they are solid numbers? Yes. Just like most of his catches have been this season, they came with a moving of the chains for the Lions offense.

Jones, has just one dropped pass this season to go along with 47 receptions and 612 yards with an average yard per reception of 13.0 and six trips to the end zone. If Driskel continues to play this season and needs a security blanket — 13 yards per catch will keep you nice and cozy.