The Detroit Lions weren’t all that bad last year until injuries absolutely decimated their offense. Matthew Stafford and T.J Hockenson are healthy and back, and they supplanted/replaced Kerryon Johnson with D’Andre Swift in the draft. What can we expect from them from a fantasy football perspective in 2020?
Sleeper – T.J. Hockenson, Tight End (TE15, 129 overall)
Last year, we saw the highest possible highs and lowest possible lows for T.J. Hockenson. He turned in something only three other rookie tight ends had done before he did it: a 100+ yard game with a touchdown. Noah Fant added himself to the ledger of rookie TEs to pull that off, as well, last season. We also saw Hockenson’s definite low points, as Hockenson had eight yards combined in his next two games. The man is sometimes known as “Matt Patricia’s Gronk” and he can smash in year two with an offseason to learn and grow the NFL game. Rookie year busts don’t mean anything to me at tight end, everyone busts their rookie year, and expecting something out of a rookie tight end is more on you than it is on them.
Breakout – D’Andre Swift, Running Back (RB27, 71 overall)
This is now the third time I’m highlighting D’Andre Swift. At this point, I’m out of words; go read the other articles. If you want a tl;dr on him: He’s extremely good, he’s (relatively) inexpensive in fantasy football drafts, and he only has to contend with Kerryon Johnson for a bell-cow role with the Detroit Lions.
Bust – Kerryon Johnson, Running Back (RB34, 92 overall)
I was as big a Kerryon Johnson fan as was humanly possible over the last two seasons, and now I am completely out on the running back after discovering one startling fact. Don’t worry, I won’t get all clickbaity on you, but check out some of those articles sometimes. Number 7 really did make me rethink my opinion of the 1990’s children’s action show Big Bad Beetleborgs. Anyway, Kerryon Johnson. He has played on 50%+ of the Lions’ touches in a game ten times in his career.
In Kerryon’s rookie year, he played on 50%+ of the snaps in each game from weeks seven through eleven. Week eleven was his last game of 2018 as the Lions placed him on the IR. In 2019, he played in over 50% of the snaps in the first five games of the season for the Lions. In the sixth game, Kerryon Johnson left with an injury and went on IR, returning in week sixteen. Come on Kerryon. I’m out on you for anything worth having on my fantasy football squad until you break that trend.
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