Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Franchise Focus: Detroit Lions

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) invites Pride of Detroit's Managing Editor Erik Schlitt (@erikschlitt) to discuss the upcoming season for the Detroit Lions. The Franchise Focus Podcast series is brought to you by Underdog Fantasy (@UnderdogFantasy). New users can sign up to Underdog using promo code FANTASYPTS for up to $100 in bonus cash on their first deposit. Visit fantasypoints.com/underdog for more info. The podcast series is also sponsored by Evan's Sports Cards & Collectibles (@evanscards). Follow @EvansCards on Twitter for weekly updates and card releases, Like on Facebook, and head to evanssportsnj.com for more info, including the always-updated eBay store. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Fantasy Points podcast, the franchise focus series here at FantasyPoint.com. My name is Joe Dolan, and today's focus, the focus of the franchise of the franchise. the franchise we'll be focusing on is the Detroit Lions, and I'm proud to be doing it with a friend of our guy, Brett Whitefield, who's heading up our data package. And that's going to be Eric Schlett. Eric, a personal friend of Brett is the managing editor at Pride of Detroit.

And he is the co-host of the Lions Breakdown Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter at Eric, E-R-I-K, Schlett, S-C-H-L-I-T-T. That's if you drank really crappy beer in college like I did, It's just replaced the Z and Schlitz with the second T. I'm sure you've gotten that before, Eric. Oh, 100%. Yes, certainly. Yeah, well, thanks for having me on, Joe.

Yeah, Brett and I go back away. We've watched training camp together. We've hung out socially. He's a good guy. I think you should be excited to get to work with him. Yeah, and I thank him for this relationship here because, Eric, I don't know if you know, but every NFL beat writer, and this is not a, unique to Detroit is on vacation right now.

Oh, yeah, sir. Which I guess makes sense, right? Because we're two weeks out from training camp. But it's going to be a great talking to you. We're going to break down the Detroit lines. But first, I have to let everybody know that Evans sports cards and collectibles brings you the franchise focus podcast series. It's the best place for cards, collectibles, autographs, anything you want from the

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That's Evans SportsNJ.com on. line and at Evans cards on Twitter. And when you go to Evans, tell them that the guys from fantasy points.com sent you. So, Eric, I think it's probably not controversial to say at this point that lions are kind of doing everything right. And that's not to mean that things went perfectly last year. You know, Anthony Lynn didn't work out as offensive coordinator. They promoted the dramatist, the playwright, Ben Johnson, to be the new offensive.

coordinator, but it kind of feels like the lions are being patient here and they're waiting for their opportunity to strike. They're improving the roster. They didn't go out and make a desperation move for a quarterback this off season. It kind of feels like just from a big picture perspective that the lions are on the right track. Yeah, Ben Johnson's addition, well, an expansion of his role last season was really critical for the lion's offense after Anthony Lynn was relieved of his playing calling duties. Dan Campbell took them over for the first couple of games after their buy, and it was very run-focused. And when he looked to Ben, you saw an expansion of concepts. You saw more pushing the ball down field. Jared Goff reacted better to it. The skilled players

reacted better to it. And you saw more of a resurgence down the stretch, especially from a couple the skill players, they really took off. And despite having some other players injured, like T. G. Hawkinson was injured. Swift was injured late in the year as well. A lot of the other players were able to step up because I think of the style of offense that Ben Johnson brought to the table. And so now this is a wide receiving group that obviously Amon Ross, Nate Brown, came on late last year, but it's a rebuilt group right now. You bring in DJ Chark. Jameson Williams, I guess you'll be ready mid-season. What's your expectation for what Chark and Williams are going to bring to this offense and how that might affect the role of Amon-Ross, St. Brown,

who, from our perspective for fantasy, was just a stud last year. Yeah. When Ben Johnson and, you know, was able to kind of unlock St. Brown, it really changed the entire dynamic of that wide receiver room because now they had a player that was reliable, someone that they knew they could go to because of his consistent route running that could set up plays in a lot of different avenues. They could run trick plays off of his consistency. And he really became the feature point of that offense late in the season. Now, the addition of Chark and Jameson is really going to just stretch the field even more. and by doing that, it should open up opportunities in the slot, which is really where their strengths are with Amun Ra and then T.J. Hawkinson. So it looks, I guess, on paper, when those additions look like they may, you know, steal targets from St. Brown. But in reality, I think it's really just going to open the middle of the field up a little bit more for him. It could actually create more target opportunities. Yeah, and he's actually getting drafted later in fantasy than his numbers and his youth suggest.

So that's actually music to my ears. And now, well, let's go, let's pivot over to Jameson Williams, who's, I mean, from a, from a fantasy perspective for this year alone, really kind of a difficult player for me to get a handle on because, correct me if I'm wrong, there's no reason for the Lions to rush James and Williams back on the field. What are you hearing about Williams? What kind of takeaway are you getting on him? And when the Lions might feel he's going to be available this season.

Yeah, I think you have the pulse right where you, where they're going to take their time with him. They drafted him with the anticipation of him not being ready to go right out of the gate. Yet when they got him into camp, he has been full go. I want to play. I'm going to do everything I can behind the scenes to get myself prepared because I don't like sitting on the sidelines. I want to be on the field. And so they've compared his work ethic to St. Brown, which is really, it's at a different level than what you see even at the NFL level. And so he, they've even known as far as to try and keep him in Allen Park during this dead period in order to make sure that they're keeping in line on his rehabilitation process,

I think because they were probably afraid that he was going to go out and try and work too much on his own and maybe could cause himself a setback. So they've actually been trying to really be patient with, getting him prepared. And so my expectation is that he goes into training camp on the Pup list and then how far along before he gets removed is really an unknown. They want to be patient with him. He wants to go and it'll be a battle of wills to see when that actually happens. Do they, you know, keep him on the Pup all the way up until the regular season or are they just going to have to unleash him a little bit later into training camp and then, you know, it takes a few weeks.

for him to get going. It's really kind of an unknown at this point. Medically, most people expect him to not really be able to contribute until like a couple of months into the season. So from a fantasy perspective, this is like more of a back half of the season. You know, if you're in a franchise league where you're carrying guys over, he's definitely a player to keep an eye on for that. But early contributions early in the season from him are expected to be low. So, T.J. Hawkinson, where's he at with his health? I mean, this is a guy, obviously, who has flashed the ability to be the elite of the elite, but he just hasn't put it all together. And I think health has been kind of a big reason for that for Hopkinson. Yeah, certainly, he is, he's back to healthy again. And the expectation, again, for him is that when you add your deep threats on the outside, that that should open opportunities up for him. In the past, what we had seen from Hawkinson is that teams would basically just put their best covered defensive back on him.

Like, for example, when the Lions played the Rams, they put Jalen Ramsey on Hawkinson, as opposed to putting him on a wide receiver because teams knew that he was the primary pass catching option, and they had to decided to try to take him away. Now with the emergence of St. Brown, the addition of Chark, when Jameson is going to be ready, teams aren't going to be able to key on Hawkinson as much. And so that, again, should open up opportunities for him. He does have a bit of an injury bug, though, history. Stylistically, just the way he plays, I don't know if it just lends himself to be susceptible to that or if it's just him being unlucky. But that is part of the package that does come with Hawkinson, even though I do expect him to be able to contribute in a way he has in the past and maybe even if, take more. In the backfield, obviously, everybody's excited about DeAndre Swift because of his explosiveness, but not really the kind of guy who's between the tackles grinder. And in theory, that's Jamal Williams. Yeah. But people are still really excited about the Andre Swift from a fantasy perspective. He's going in the

second round, borderline first round. They're expecting him to take that next step this year. Do you think that's a reasonable expectation for DeAndre Swift? I think we kind of know what he is, right? Like, You know he's a, he's got some speed. He can, he can really hit the second level really quickly. He's got great hands out of the backfield, which makes him a player that is going to be used in all situations. He's going to see a minimum of half the offensive snaps on any game. Typically, it's closer to like 70% of offensive snaps. And he's also a guy who is probably going to miss a game or two because of the injury bug as well.

So that's another factor you have to take into consideration when if you're looking at Swift and Fantasy is that he's going to have that dynamic ability. And he is going to be their primary option out of the backfield. But you have to worry about injuries with him as well. Yeah. Jamal Williams, did they get what they wanted from him last year? Were they a little bit disappointed with his output? because, I mean, you know, at points, you had Craig Reynolds back there and Equique and Jemar Jefferson had a big run and I think got hurt at the end of that run.

Was that against Pittsburgh? Yeah, Pittsburgh. So what's, is there a chance that there's an early down grinder here that is not Jamal Williams who gets the most carries outside of Swift on this team? I still think they prefer Williams as their top reserve. And the thing I, you have to keep in mind. last year was that they lost Frank Ragnow very early in the season, their starting center. And so they replaced him with Evan Brown. And while Evan Brown had a solid season, it was a little

tougher go trying to go between the tackles as a runner. And you did see some explosive plays from the reserves. Jefferson did have that terrific one. Iguibu Kui had a 42-yarder, I think. Reynolds looked like a really good grinder late in the season. It's going to be an interesting battle between them to see who backs up Reynolds or I'm sorry who backs up Williams but I do think Williams is the the second preferred option right now stylistically the two closest matches to him are Jefferson and then there's an undrafted kid named Greg Bell who is a bit of a sleeper for the roster I don't know if he'd necessarily be draftable but I don't know I went I wouldn't draft them but he's a guy who, again, kind of fits that same mold as a between the tackles type one cut slasher.

Yeah, he's out at San Diego State, obviously. We've played some good football in recent years. And just two more questions for you, Eric, before we let you go about your day. First and foremost, I think the expectation of the Lions organization is that Jared Gough is a placeholder here. I think the expectation among Lions fans is that Jared Gough is a placeholder. I think the general expectation among people who aren't even fans of the Lions, who are just maybe fantasy players, are that Jared Goff is a placeholder here. Is there a scenario that you can envision in your head where Jared Goff is not merely a

placeholder and he can play himself into saying, you know what, we can win with this guy. He is somebody who's been to a Super Bowl before. Is that within the range of outcomes for Jared Goff or the Lions just biding their time here? I think the broader perspective is that they are buying time with him, but at the same token, they're very, they're a very reward-oriented staff, meaning if you prove that you can take your game to another level, then the staff will reward you with that and give you more opportunities. and if he gets back to some of those numbers we saw with the Rams back in like 2018, and, you know, when he was in that playoff mode, he was more consistent. He was willing to push the ball down to field, but yet could kept his interceptions a little bit low.

I think the Lions would be excited with that. When you add in the weapons that they've, you know, added over the last offseason, if the offense could be in the top half of the league, if the team makes the playoffs. These are things that would really go far to, you know, to helping him keep a job beyond this season because those aren't things that, like, are necessarily expected out of the lions right now in year two of the rebuild. So, yeah, if he could, if he can push the offense to a level, it hasn't been before. If he can, you know, push his numbers above expectations. I do think it's realistic. He's hanging around in 2023 and maybe beyond. He has his contract

runs for three more seasons. So there's a chance, you know, that he is able to see the end of that contract with a really good 2022. Eric, I've been wrapping up all the franchise focus podcast by asking the writer and the analyst. Somebody who might not be on the tip of the tongue of fantasy players who has maybe an opportunity to contribute at some point this season, whether it be early in the season, later on in the season, who's that guy for the Lions for you? It's probably Josh Reynolds, who is going to be a starter. and at least until Jameson is ready. And again, that could be mid-season. So Josh Reynolds is a guy who is probably not someone people are really talking about. He's going to have one of the outside roles.

He has a history with Jared Goff. He showed that well last season with Goff where their chemistry picked up pretty quickly. And for a guy, if you're looking for a guy who can contribute early, or if you are drafting Jameson Williams, he's a nice handcuff to that as a guy who has the potential to put up some numbers early that, you know, as a guy that I don't, as a sleeper, I guess. Well, Eric, it's been wonderful talking Detroit Lions with you. I feel like, I said this to Brett, but I feel like the Lions are like one of the most underappreciated fan bases in all of sports, only because when you talk about tortured fan bases, you're like, oh, the bills and the Vikings. And yeah, but those fans have been tortured at the highest level of the sport, at least. And, like, Lions fans, they just keep coming back, man. And I'm sure your work is very popular for Lions fans, but it feels like there's just reason to be optimistic with Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell.

And I hope in the very near future, they're bringing you some winning football. It would be a lot. It would mean a lot to the fan base if that, you know, comes to fruition. Because, yeah, they've had a long, torturous. couple of decades where they haven't had a lot to celebrate. And it does seem like that Brad Holmes has his organization headed in the right direction. Eric Schlett is the managing editor at Pride of Detroit. And he's the co-host of the Lions Breakdown Podcasts if you're at all interested in the

Lions. You need to be following Eric Schlitt on Twitter at E-R-I-K-Sh-L-I-T-T. Eric, thank you so much for joining me here on the franchise focus podcast. It was great talking to you. And I'll tell Brett that, uh, I really enjoyed our time together, so it was fantastic. It was a pleasure, Joe. Thank you so much.

Thank you, everybody, for joining me for the franchise focus podcast here on the Detroit Lions. Later on this week, we're going to be talking Broncos, Cowboys, Browns. Might be a little something to chat about there. And Bengals. So really have been enjoying these podcasts to you. Thanks, everybody for listening. For Eric, I'm Joe. Take it easy.

Everybody. Have the great rest of your day. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and read. review on your favorite platform and come join the roster at fantasy points.com.