We are nine Sundays away from the NFL regular season, and there has never been this much hype around a Detroit Lions team, before the season, in possibly the entire team’s history. Coming off an awe-inspiring season, that came to an extremely tragic ending, The Lions have set themselves up to be potential Superbowl favorites if everything goes to plan. The biggest piece to that plan is these players’ seasons, if they play to their potential the Lions will be lethal.
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Jameson Williams, Lions Wide Reciever
Jameson Williams showcased fantastic potential throughout his first two seasons with the Lions, it seems every time he touches the ball he has a chance to turn it into a big gain. In his first season he was still recovering from a torn ACL that he suffered in college, in the few games he played he touched the ball twice and both plays went for 40+ yards. These explosive plays in his first season came as no surprise to most fans as he was the best receiver prospect in the 2022 draft before his injury, the Lions being able to snag him at 12 was an absolute steal.
In his second season, he was unfortunately suspended for the first four games due to a technicality in the NFL rulebook about betting on team facilities. The second he came back from this suspension he again began to showcase his elite potential, making one of the toughest catches of the season for a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in week 6. The Lions continued to slowly give him more snaps throughout the year as he showed he was capable of being great but didn’t fully unleash him simply because they didn’t need to. Now with Josh Reynolds leaving to go to the Denver Broncos, it is finally time for Jameson Williams to shine, if he can reach his potential that he’s shown on the field already, The Lions’ pass game will be unstoppable.
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James Houston, Lions EDGE Rusher
The Lions selected James Houston in the sixth round as a low-risk, high-reward type of player, and in his first season, he was showing to be one of Brad Holmes’ many late-day draft steals. He got activated off the practice squad with only seven games left to play in the season, and somehow put up eight sacks in those seven games. He showed all the elite traits of being an elite pass rusher and was instantly on teams’ radar as a top guy. While he wasn’t great in the run game, his pass rush moves were so good it looked like the Lions had their pass rush duo of the future, with him and Aidan Hutchinson.
Entering his second season, fans and coaches were so excited to see what he could do with a full season under his belt, but sadly, shortly into the season he broke his foot after being put into coverage. Due to this injury, Detroit’s pass rush was almost non-existent, teams were able to double and triple team Aidan Hutchinson and there was no one else on the edge who could generate pressure. If James Houston can stay healthy this year and can continue the production that he showed in his rookie year, the Lions should dominate at getting to the quarterback.
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Jake Bates, Lions Kicker
Detroit has struggled to kick field goals consistently ever since they departed with Matt Prater, they have gone through a rotating door of kickers ever since then and none of them have worked out. The kicking has been so bad the team has been forced to go for many fourth-down plays where most teams would kick, purely because they couldn’t trust their kicker to make those kicks. Now there seems to be a little hope for the Lions kicker situation, as Michigan Panthers star Jake Bates has signed to the Detroit Lions. He was automatic from seemingly anywhere on the field, even nailing multiple 60+ yard field goals. If this skill translates to the NFL then the Lions should never have to worry about a kicker for a while and will be able to eliminate a lot of empty possessions.
