Part One

This is part two of a three part series breaking down the Lions season at the halfway point.

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Individual Stats

-Passing

Name	CMP-ATT	CMP%	YDS	YDS/G	TD-INT	Sack	RTG
J. Goff	200-293	68.3	2,174	271.8	12-5	15	96.4

-General Thoughts: He’s the leader of the offense and the most important person on the team. He can put the game on his shoulders and win, or be a game manager for the talent around him. He’s playing the best ball of his career and is in the conversation for MVP. All hail the Goffense.

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-Rushing

Name	GP	CAR	YDS	AVG	BIG (20+)	TD	YDS/G	BT
J. Gibbs	6	76	399	5.3	4	2	66.5	10
D. Montgomery	5	94	385	4.1	1	6	77.0	12
C. Reynolds	8	41	179	4.4	0	1	22.4	1
K. Raymond	8	4	52	13.0	1	0	6.5	0
Z. Knight	2	3	13	4.3	0	0	6.5	0
J. Goff	8	18	13	0.7	0	2	1.6	0
D. Ozigbo	3	3	5	1.7	0	0	1.7	0
A. St. Brown	7	1	4	4.0	0	0	0.6	0
J. Reeves-Maybin	8	1	3	3.0	0	0	0.4	0
J. Cabinda	3	1	0	0.0	0	0	0.0	0

-General Thoughts: Unfortunately, the injury bug has hit the RB room the first half of the season. While Gibbs continues to impress and is getting better every week, Monty is still very important to our short yardage running game and redzone execution. I wouldn’t be surprised that going forward if Gibbs eats into Monty’s carries to the point where it’s closer to a 70-30 split favoring Gibbs between the 20’s, and that usage reversed inside the redzone. . While I can see Gibbs get the majority of touches eventually, Monty’s still going to get plenty of work every game. We’ll always use a RB by situation (outside of injury), but Gibbs electric speed and nasty cutting ability should make him very important getting into the redzone. Also a shout out to Craig Reynolds, he’s averaging 4.4 YPC and has filled in well as the RB2 when called on.

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-Receiving

Name	REC	TGTS	YDS	AVG	TD	BIG (20+)	YDS/G	YAC	REC/FD
A. St. Brown	57	78	665	11.7	3	9	95.0	242	33
S. Laporta	43	59	434	10.1	4	4	54.3	187	22
J. Reynolds	22	31	397	18.0	3	14	49.6	107	20
K. Raymond	18	23	231	12.8	1	4	28.9	99	10
J. Gibbs	28	33	165	5.9	0	1	27.5	152	11
J. Williams	6	15	71	11.8	1	2	17.8	9	2
D. Montgomery	6	10	66	11.0	0	0	13.2	83	4
C. Reynolds	5	5	47	9.4	0	1	5.9	59	2
B. Wright	7	7	45	6.4	0	0	5.6	26	1
MJJ	5	10	35	7.0	0	0	5.8	9	2
Z. Knight	1	1	8	8.0	0	0	4.0	13	0
D. Ozigbo	1	1	8	8.0	0	0	2.7	5	0
A. Green	1	1	2	2.0	0	0	0.3	1	0

-General Thoughts: This is a very talented receiver room led by ARSB, he has the most targets of any player and is consistently able to find the soft spot in zone or beat his man in coverage. LaPorta has become another favorite target for Goff, he’s had a historic start to his career and should continue his pace being one of Goff’s most reliable passcatchers. Reynolds has been an excellent outside WR that has been our real homerun threat so far this year with an 18 yards per catch average, 14 receptions of 20 or more yards, and 3 TD’s. There’s a lot of conflicting opinions in Lions fandom over the impact Jamo has had so far. I’m not going to get into it besides for saying this; he’s healthy, he’s getting game experience, and as he gets more comfortable his talent should start to really shine through. I’m not worried about Jamo. Raymond hasn’t had as large of an impact as others, but he’s a reliable guy that can step in and really compete if injuries pop up again.

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-Defense

NAME	Comb	Solo	Ast	TFL	QBhits	Sack	Prss	PD	Tgt	Comp	Comp/P	INT	FF	DEF/TD
Alex Anzalone	57	39	18	5	6	3.0	6	4	38	26	68.4%	0	0	0
Jerry Jacobs	33	31	2	1	1	0.0	2	5	52	30	57.7%	3	0	0
Kerby Joseph	33	28	5	0	0	0.0	0	5	21	7	33.3%	1	0	0
Brian Branch	33	26	7	4	0	0.0	3	4	29	21	72.4%	1	0	1
Tracy Walker	35	24	11	1	2	1.0	3	2	21	11	52.4%	0	1	0
Jack Campbell	34	21	13	2	1	1.0	1	1	14	11	78.6%	0	0	0
Derrick Barnes	34	17	17	2	1	1.0	1	0	15	12	80%	0	1	0
Aidan Hutchinson	23	16	7	4	10	4.5	28	4	2	0	0.0%	1	1	0
Cameron Sutton	24	18	6	1	0	0.0	0	1	38	21	55.3%	0	0	0
Will Harris	17	12	5	1	1	0.0	1	2	18	15	83.3%	1	0	0
Alim McNeil	16	9	7	5	7	4.0	9	1	0	0		0	1	0
CJ Gardner-Johnson	13	12	1	0	0	0.0	2	2	5	4	80%	0	0	0
Charles Harris	10	8	2	2	4	1.5	11	0	1	1	100.0%	0	0	0
John Cominsky	14	4	10	1	5	1.0	7	0	2	1	50.0%	0	0	0
Benito Jones	9	6	3	1	3	1.0	3	0	0	0		0	0	0
Isaiah Buggs	8	6	2	1	1	1.0	1	1	2	2	100.0%	0	0	0
Josh Pashal	8	7	1	1	0	0.0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0
Ifeatu Melifonwu	7	5	2	1	0	0.0	0	1	6	5	83.3%	0	0	0
JRM	7	4	3	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0
Malcolm Rodriguez	7	4	3	0	0	0.0	0	0	8	5	62.5%	0	1	0
Julian Okwara	4	4	0	2	3	2.0	3	1	0	0		0	0	0
Khalil Dorsey	4	5	5	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0
Chase Lucas	3	2	1	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0
Anthony Pittman*	3	2	1	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0
Romeo Okwara	4	0	4	0	1	0.0	1	1	0	0		0	0	0
Levi Onwuzurike	2	1	1	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0
James Houston	1	1	0	0	1	0.0	1	0	1	1	100.0%	0	0	0
Brodric Martin	1	1	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0

-General Thoughts: I would like to be the first to tender an apology to Jerry Jacobs. He’s been surprisingly stingy on the outside allowing only a 57.7% catch rate and is leading the team with three picks. He’s gotten some some consternation from the fan base (including me) but has actually been pretty good most of the year. Less surprising is Sutton only allowing a 55.3% catch rate on the other side. A lot of good on this sheet, also a lot of improvements that need to be made. One area that we need to see definite improvement on is pressures from people not named Aidan Hutchinson. We have to have someone(s) step up on a consistent basis so the opposing offenses can’t focus solely on Hutch. I think as the year goes on, and some of our younger guys keep gaining experience, we’ll pick up more pressures and sacks helping out our injury plagued secondary.

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Rookie Watch

• Jahmyr Gibbs
  • After easing him into running the ball the first two games, an injury forced Gibbs into the starting role against the Falcons. He didn’t disappoint picking up 80 yards on 17 carries. After taking a seat to Monty’s hot hand vs the Packers, he was one of the few bright spots in the loss to Baltimore. While it did take a few games to get going on the ground, he has been pretty consistent through the air, collecting 28 catches on 33 targets. This last game was his coming out party with 152 yards rushing on 26 carries and anther 37 through the air. Going forward, he should be getting more touches to the point of possible lead back status by the end of the year.
• Jack Campbell
  • Another player eased into the lineup, Campbell continues to impress. With the excellent play of Anzalone and Barnes, Aaron Glenn has had to get creative getting him on the field. He’s taken snaps as a ILB, OLB, rush DE, and blitz specialist making him a true Jack of all trades (I’m so sorry). It does seem going forward he will play a more traditional ILB role and should continue his steady development after getting his feet wet.
• Sam Laporta
  • Even as a fan of his coming out of college, and being very happy with us drafting him, I had no idea he was going to be on pace for a historic rookie season halfway through the year. He’s already become one of Goff’s favorite pass catchers being targeted 59 times for 43 receptions (next closest is Reynolds with 31tgs, 22rec). He attacks all levels of the field and seems to have a knack for finding the soft spot in zone coverage. His run blocking has been good and has gotten better as the years gone on (including a couple excellent blocks on Max Crosby last game). Great YAC in space by being a tough athletic runner but sometimes gets ahead of himself and has a drop. Defenses have already started to give him a lot more attention in their defensive gameplans, but it hasn’t really done a lot to slow him down yet.
• Brian Branch
  • Probably with the biggest rookie impact at the beginning of the year, Branch came out game one swinging by getting a pick 6 off of Mahomes. He followed it up with a solid game vs. Seattle before having a all pro effort against Atlanta with 11 solo tkls, 3 TFL, and 2 PD. He’s missed some time with an injury and is still trying to get to 100% but has had solid contributions since coming back. If he can stay on the field, he will be a huge piece for the defense in the second half.
• Hendon Hooker
  • With recent comments stating he’s around 90% after suffering a ACL tear in his last season at Tennessee, it looks as though his rehab is right on schedule. While he’s still not practicing with the team yet, and there’s no plans for him to play any game snaps this year, the pick wasn’t made with him playing this season in mind. Look to next training camp for the next view of Hooker slinging the ball.
• Brodric Martin
  • After being a healthy scratch the first 7 games of the season, Brodric got his first NFL regular season experience with 11 defensive snaps against the Raiders. He’s being brought along slowly but should see an increased role in the second half against run heavy teams.
• Colby Sorsdal
  • With the oline being down three starters, Sorsdal did an excellent job in his first NFL start helping pave the way for 222 rushing yards against the Raiders. Hopefully he can continue his development on the bench for awhile though, but it’s nice to know hes capable of a spot start when needed.
• Antonie Green
  • After leading the team in the preseason in receiving yards, Greene has been buried on the depth chart with a number of talented and capable WR’s ahead of him. With only 2 targets for 1 catch this season, he’s probably not going to see much action until next preseason.

-General Thoughts: I’m wowed. I’ve never seen a draft class have such a impact so quickly before. Out of our first four draft picks, two were out of the gate starters (the other two with multiple starts) and all four have flashed amazing potential. We’ve also seen our later picks have a impact and could still play an important role this year (more likely next year though if we’re healthy). To say I’m excited to see these guys continue their development is an understatement.

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Part Three should be out in the next couple days.

Going to have midseason team awards, position group breakdowns, 2nd half expectations/predictions, and final thoughts.

Let me know in the comments if there’s any other topics you’d like to see covered.