Monday overreaction: One Lions player has earned a bigger opportunity, and the former high draft pick may need to move aside
Tay Martin spent the summer earning Detroit’s trust in every dirty-work role imaginable. Isaac TeSlaa spent it struggling to separate himself. Maybe it’s time to open the competition.
It’s time for my first Monday overreaction of the year, and I’m just going to go out and say it: I don’t think this is that much of an overreaction. I came out of Week 1 of the Detroit Lions season thinking that maybe an opportunity should be opened up for a player who fought like hell to make this 53-man roster and has done nothing but impress all summer long. That opportunity comes at the expense of a player Detroit spent a high draft pick on and traded up to get. I’m talking about the possibility of putting Tay Martin ahead of Isaac TeSlaa on the Lions depth chart.
Here’s why.
Martin has earned it
Tay Martin has had an incredible summer. He came to Detroit from the UFL, where he was one of the better receivers in the Spring League, and he was immediately identified as a guy who could carve out a real role. His special teams ability was something we pointed out right away. He gets to Lions camp and shows exactly that, making it clearer and clearer that he belonged. At the time, we thought Greg Dortch was going to be on this team. Then Dortch got cut. The Lions carried four receivers, and Martin was one of them alongside Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, and TeSlaa.
On Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, Martin went out there and balled out on special teams. There’s no other way to put it. Three big tackles, and these weren’t group tackles where he happened to be in the pile. Martin was a gunner getting downfield, hitting the return man, the first guy there every time. One of those tackles went for a loss. You just don’t see that a lot. Dan Campbell brought him up after the game as one of the players who really showed out, and Campbell has continued to bring Martin up over and over again.
On top of all that, everybody remembers the Josh Dobbs 50-yard touchdown. Who laid the block that made that play happen? Tay Martin. That’s another reason he made this team. It wasn’t just special teams. This guy does what Dan Campbell calls the dirty work.
Where has TeSlaa been?
Now let’s look at TeSlaa. It’s been an up-and-down camp for him, and I think that’s being generous. You go back to OTAs and mandatory minicamp, the thought process was that TeSlaa would be a bigger part of this offense. That’s what we were told. That’s what we were being shown. Once training camp started, the guy disappeared. It’s as simple as that. There were good plays here and there, some moments, some stuff. But I think even TeSlaa will tell you it wasn’t a good summer. Everybody in the press room will tell you the same thing. It was hard not to notice.
Then we get to Week 1. Do you remember anything TeSlaa did in this game? There were a couple of times where maybe Jared Goff tried to target him, and things got broken up, but I was in the press box for this game. I covered the whole thing. I watched every minute. I can’t tell you I remember moments where he was on the field.
Why this isn’t really an overreaction
This is where the overreaction part comes in, and where I still think maybe it’s not one. The overreaction angle is obvious: it’s Week 1, and here I am already trying to move a guy who was expected to be a bigger part of the offense before this season started. The reason I think it’s not an overreaction is because he has not showed up. He has not been the guy we thought he would be. Where is he? I can barely see him.
Then you look at Martin and you say, man, that guy’s working his tail off. That guy’s doing all the right things. He deserves some targets. All it takes is for the Lions to say, all right, on Thursday against the Buffalo Bills, let’s give Martin three or four targets and see what he does with them. If he shows out, you have to start thinking about it. You have to go, man, this guy is giving us value.
If I’m the Lions, I’m looking at Martin right now and saying, let’s see what this kid can do. And I’m looking at TeSlaa and saying, we love you. We have high hopes for you. We still believe you could be something. But right now, you’ve got to earn that back. Because at this point, we just don’t know.
That’s what I’m thinking on Monday morning. Maybe TeSlaa should take a back seat to Martin. Let’s see how it plays out Thursday night.
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