The Detroit Lions won five games last season and fired head coach Matt Patricia in the process. They then hired Dan Campbell and traded Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams for Jared Goff and draft picks. It was a whirlwind of change as they start yet another rebuild.
Quarterback
- Jared Goff
- Tim Boyle
- David Blough
Running back
- D’Andre Swift
- Jamaal Williams
- Jermar Jefferson
- Rakeem Boyd
Wide receiver
- Tyrell Williams
- Breshad Perriman
- Quintez Cephus
- Amon-Ra St. Brown
- Geronimo Allison
- Kalif Raymond
- Damion Ratley
Tight end
- T.J. Hockenson
- Darren Fells
- Hunter Thedford
Biggest offseason changes
Where to start? As I’ve already mentioned in the introduction, Matt Patricia is gone and Dan Campbell and his knee biting fetish are in place. Stafford has moved on to much greener pastures in Los Angeles and has been replaced by the Rams cast off Goff. They let their best receiver go in free agency, as Kenny Golladay landed with the Giants. They also let their second best receiver, Marvin Jones, go to Jacksonville. To replace their depleted receiver group they signed Tyrell Williams, who missed last season due to injury and Breshad Perriman, who has had an inconsistent career so far.
Kerryon Johnson and Adrian Peterson are gone, giving D’Andre Swift the lead role while they also added ex-Packers back Jamaal Williams as Swift’s backup. T.J. Hockenson is the “veteran” offensive skill position player left on the team at this point.
Biggest questions for fantasy football
Hockenson and Swift appear the best positioned to put up fantasy numbers at their positions in Detroit. Both should have good usage in an offense without many proven play makers. Of course, Campbell could become enamored with Williams’ sound ability at the position, but Swift is more talented and should dominate touches on the ground and through the air.
The receiving core coupled with an inconsistent Goff doesn’t have much upside. There should be plenty of targets for an offense that will likely be trailing often, but those targets won’t be efficient and they’ll be spread out. Williams and Perriman should lead the group in targets, but are still later round fantasy picks.