How the Detroit Lions could rebuild their passing game this offseason

So as the Lions, along with the rest of the league, pack their bags for Indianapolis, the question becomes how will Detroit address their needs and give themselves the best chance moving forward next season to rebound from a rather forgettable first year under Matt Patricia?

The great thing about the offseason is that there are a number of ways for a team to address multiple needs and be much improved when they take the field the next fall. But it does take some shrewd scouting, complete understanding of their team’s system and the best athletes to play in it and a little luck never hurts either.

So with that in mind, how can the Lions get the most out of this offseason to improve the quality of pass catchers for Matthew Stafford?

The fact that the Lions top needs are on defense and that the draft is heavy with defensive gems would all but tell us free agency and the trade route would be the best way to address the offense while allowing the defense to benefit from a highly talented young player waiting to be selected by them at number eight.

It’s a direction that they could go and certainly could work, but there are other paths to finding the players they need.

So many pundits have been talking like the answer to the receiving issue is only possible by going one direction. They whine that a rookie may not be able to contribute enough or that there aren’t enough premium players in free agency to help. What I would expect is that the Lions will be finding answers through both routes.

One possible way to maximize that process would be if they were to be very aggressive at the advent of free agency and fill those top two defensive needs by signing players like former Patriots defensive end Trey Flowers and former Eagles cornerback Ronald Darby.

This would completely open up the draft for the Lions and allow them to trade down and gather extra picks or stay put and add a bluechip prospect. Remember that this is a defensive heavy draft for talent, which means they could very well be in a good position to leverage a trade with another team desperate to move up and get one of the top-rated quarterbacks available.

Which would then create more options…