2015 Detroit Lions: A Slappy’s Guide

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Besides Suh, Every Player that Left was Replaceable

Nick Fairley had a very promising career in Detroit, but it was marred by injury and inconsistency. He couldn’t stay healthy, couldn’t stay in shape, and more importantly couldn’t stay on the field on game days.  The Detroit Lions replaced him with a player who had a similar snap count in 2015 but produced more statistically in Tyrunn Walker.  Walker was battling with Caraun Reid for the starting job and they both looked up to the task.

CJ Mosley was another notable loss, but the team had already brought in Caraun Reid and started grooming him.  Reid came into training camp a new person.  Bigger, more thickly built, and ready to wreck shop, he tore up camp and went on to have a strong start to the preseason before being sidelined by a high ankle sprain. Tyrunn Walker had already won the starting job, but Reid is poised to be a huge contributor once healthy.

Reggie bush wasn’t a loss, though the national media paints it that way.  Often sidelined with injury and long since passed his ability to burn players on the ground and through the air, the Detroit Lions replaced him with 2nd round rookie Ameer Abdullah and haven’t looked back.  Abdullah hasn’t been dropping passes like Bush did and he has even been running more complex routes than Bush did out of the backfield.  It’s hard to argue Abdullah as anything other than a replacement over the long time vet.

Next: Year Two In the Offense