Coming into the 2018 season, the Lions wide receiving core appeared to be one of the team’s stronger points. Golden Tate and Marvin Jones both had eclipsed 1000 yards receiving, the only wide receiver duo to hit that mark, and fans were riding high on Kenny Golladay’s rookie season, expecting big things from the second year player. Add in T.J Jones and the Lions had a borderline great four man line up. Then the season started.
Golden Tate was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles following the Lions loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Marvin Jones was placed on IR for a knee injury following the week 12 loss to the Chicago Bears. Matthew Stafford was forced to finish the season with Golladay; the opening day #3 receiver, Bruce Ellington; square peg in a Golden Tate round hole, Brandon Powell; this year’s training camp darling who did nothing until playing a weak Green Bay Packers defense, and Andy Jones; the PUP man. Even at full health, the Lions receivers ranked poorly at getting separation, forcing Stafford to throw into tight coverage more often than not. As JonnyWon pointed out in Mike Payton’s article on Pride of Detroit; Wide receiver should be a high priority for the Detroit Lions this offseason, NextGenStats kept track of all wide receivers and their ability to create separation. Golladay came in at number 95 and Marvin Jones ranked at 117. Now this might be due to poor play calling by former offensive coordinator, Jim Bob Cooter, but even so, the Lions need to spend some time, and money, fixing this problem this off season.
I took every receiver mentioned in Payton’s article, the comment section, and a couple of my own choices, and compared them against each other to see who the Lions could make a run at in free agency.
The One Year Bob Quinn Specials:
TJ Jones: Starting off this list with a familiar name and one of my choices. After having a mini break out year in 2017, the Lions resigned Jones to a 1 year deal for the 2018 season. Jones regressed in almost every statistical category. With Jones’ familiarity with Stafford, and the fact he’ll come on a fairly cheap deal, this is the one signing I would expect to happen over all the others.
Breshad Perriman: msivits mentioned Perriman and I’ll admit, I totally forgot he existed. Perriman has been a bust thus far in his career after being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens towards the end of the first round in the 2015 Draft. The Lions have their experience with first round busts at WR, and even in 2014 took a shot at Jon Baldwin, who failed his physical and was waived a day after signing. Perriman could be an interesting option for the Lions, with a similar size to Marvin Jones, and boasting a 4.25 40 time at the 2015 combine, he could be a very cheap deep threat option for the Lions to bring in, who at worst would be a camp body, and at best, would be a 3rd option at WR for Stafford.
Short Term Solutions: A two or at most three year contract.
Chris Hogan: Payton mentioned Hogan directly in his article and it was the name I saw most fans in the comments disagreeing with. I am hesitant on going after Hogan myself, he’s been a solid performer for Brady and Co. for the last three seasons, but just how much of his numbers are do to having Tom Brady as his quarterback? Hogan would play a similar role for the Lions as he did for the Patriots, and shouldn’t cost toooooo much, maybe $5 to 5.5 million a year. At 30 years olds, Hogan could still be a viable option for Stafford.
Cole Beasley: Beasley, or as a couple commenters were calling him, Golden Tate Lite, is one of my personal favorite options the Lions could go get. Beasley is a year younger than Tate, 29, and would cost much less than the former Lion would. The 5’8” receiver has averaged over 10 yards a catch over his entire career, and could fill the “short yardage, YAC receiver” role that the Lions missed over the last half of the season. Beasley has also been incredibly reliable, health wise, over his career, missing just one game in the last five years. Spotrac didn’t have a potential contract available for Beasley, but I believe he could be could be had for between $6 and 7 million a year on a two to three year deal.
Jermaine Kearse: The last shorter term solution I had was Kearse. This option might be a little head scratching for fans, as Kearse has kinda fallen off over the last season, only playing in nine games, but going back to 2017, Kearse put up over 800 yards and five touchdowns with Josh McCown throwing to him. The other reason I bring Kearse up, is the Lions just signed his former offensive coordinator from his time in Seattle, Darrell Bevell. Kearse would also come with a fairly cheap contract, his last deal being a three year, $13.5 million deal. Coming off an injured, down year, Kearse could sign a deal at or, below his last contract.
The Long(er), Expensive Solutions:
John Brown: Spotrac has Brown down for a two year deal for his next contract, but I see that as too short. I could see a team locking down Brown on a three or four year deal. Brown is the first receiver highlighted in this list that has eclipsed 1000 yards in a single season, 1003 yards in 2015 with the Arizona Cardinals. Spotrac has Brown listed for $6.1 million a season, but as he is only 28 years old and with his production thus far, I could also seeing that being too low. I think $7.5 million a year would be a fair price for Brown.
Adam Humphries: Alright, now this is my absolute favorite out of everyone on this list. Humphries is the youngest on this list at just 25 years old, but even at his younger age, he still has four years of experience playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers behind Mike Evans. He’s recorded over 600 yards in each of his last three seasons, but until last season, wasn’t a big red zone option. But the biggest thing that popped out to me when looking at Humphries stats, was how similar his numbers are to pre-Detroit Golden Tate. In Tate’s three seasons prior to joining the Lions he compiled; 144 receptions, 1968 yards and 15 touchdowns. In Humphries last three seasons; 192 receptions, 2069 yards and 8 touchdowns. The downside to Humphries is how much he will cost the Lions. Spotrac currently lists Humphries as worth a 4 year, $42 million deal. That's over $10 million a season. On a team that has many needs across the board, justifying this contract might be a hard sell for the fans.
Golden Tate: I know this is a pipedream but let me have it. Tate is one of my all time favorite Lions players and I was unhappy when I saw he got traded. I understood why the team traded him away but it still stung. Tate’s performance after the trade was disappointing to say the least. In seven games with the Lions, Tate put up 44 receptions, 517 yards and 3 touchdowns. In eight games with the Eagles (not including the playoffs), Tate saw his numbers drop to 30 receptions, 278 yards and 1 touchdown. We Lions fans know what to expect with Tate. We know the type of performance Tate is capable of and what to expect week to week. Spotrac lists Tate as worth a 3 year, $30.5 million contract. Same with Humphries, those numbers might be hard for Lions fans to swallow with all the other needs this team has.
As much as I would like one of the last two options to be signed, I don’t think the Lions will due to the contracts both players would command. I think the best assumption would be for the Lions to sign a lower level player mentioned and then maybe...MAYBE look to draft another play
maker.
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