Nobody is considering who the Lions’ two biggest weapons can sneakily be against the Rams
Tom Kennedy and Jacob Saylors can make a big impact against the Rams
The Detroit Lions have a very big game on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. The team that is widely believed to be the very best team in the NFL. This is going to be a hard one for sure. In games like this, sometimes it’s the little things that can make a big difference. In this case, two players can make a world of difference on Sunday, and it’s not Jahmyr Gibbs, Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Aidan Hutchinson, or Jack Campbell.
Tom Kennedy and Jacob Saylors can make a world of difference against the Rams
That’s right, we’re talking about Tom Kennedy and Jacob Saylors. The fifth or sixth receiver and the fourth running back on the roster, but two guys who may have found that they have a knack for returning kicks. Special teams is the phase that nobody ever tends to think about. But it can make a big difference in this one because of starting field position.
The Lions are first in the league when it comes to average starting field position. On average, they’re getting to the 33.1-yard line, and that was mostly with Saylors. Now the Lions have Saylors and Kennedy back there taking the returns, and Kennedy had returns of 42, 40, and 38 last Thursday. I talked with our Rams beat writer, AJ Schulte, and he concurred that this is an area the Lions could do some damage at.
“In a game between two offenses capable of scoring at will, every yard the defense can save is going to matter. The Rams don’t have a particularly great kick return unit, but Shaun Dolac & Troy Reeder have held up admirably in kickoff coverage as well, so the Lions will have to get creative in how they attack LA’s special teams unit.”
The creativity comes from having two guys who are capable of getting yards where most teams hope to have just one. The one concern the Lions might have is that the Rams have had the fewest kick returns attempted against them this season. So the game plan for them might be to just kick the ball out of the back of the end zone, but that’s not really a big help either, because then the Lions get to start at the 35-yard line. So this is a win/win for the Lions either way. You’d of course like them to stack the bigger returns instead. We’ll see what happens, but these guys could make an impact.
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