Is Jamaal Williams Holding Back D'Andre Swift?
The Detroit Lions offense is certainly in need of a jolt, especially running the football.
Among the decisions new offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is going to be forced to make is how to distribute the carries and targets among the running backs on the roster.
D'Andre Swift is entering his third season in the NFL, but has yet to establish himself as an elite runner.
While highly effective in the pass game, Detroit's former second-round pick only recorded two 100-yard games last season.
Injuries have hampered his development, but the presence of Jamaal Williams on the roster has also taken away rushing attempts and targets in the passing game.
In a recent ranking of each NFL team's "triplets", CBS Sports ranked the Lions tandem of Jared Goff, Swift and Williams 24th.
As NFL writer Jared Dublin explained, "The best thing you can say about Goff is that he won’t kill your offense. Most of the time. He can keep the trains running on time if everything around him is working perfectly. Given a strong offensive line in Detroit, he likely won’t crater the Lions offense. But he won’t lift it above where the talent level dictates it should be, either.
"Swift is electric catching passes out of the backfield, and could do more in the run game if allowed to pull more of the backfield away from Jamaal Williams. Hockenson has yet to have the true breakout season many have been predicting, but he’s probably a top-10 pass-catching tight end at the moment."
Williams is playing the final season of his two-year contract signed with the Lions back in 2021.
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Speaking to the media recently, the 27-year-old running back expressed very high goals for the players on the roster.
“As long as everybody got the one mindset of we’re going for the Super Bowl and we’re gonna win the Super Bowl, well, we’ve gotta be able to get to the playoffs, Super Bowl, all that. But, our main goal is to get that ring.”
For the Lions to be able to reach high-end goals, it may behoove the coaching staff to feature Swift more, especially given the talent level along the offensive line.
“I would say this is the most talented line I’ve been a part of, 100 percent. I’m not necessarily a talent evaluator, but we’ve just got a bunch of guys that are smart, confident, athletic," left tackle Taylor Decker said last week. "We can get out and run a bunch of guys on the perimeter, or we can run downhill. One-back power, two-back power, duo, whatever it may be. We’ve got guys that can just do a lot of things.”
A fair resolution could be to deploy both on the field much more at the same time, but the time is now for the Lions to decide if Swift is worth a long-term investment at running back.
