The Detroit Lions need more than a running back to be scary

Running back fantasies

Shortly after the 4:00 PM trade deadline on Tuesday, a friend of mine called up to vent about the Lions’ inability to acquire a running back. He went on to say the season is over and that someone in the organization should have taken a stand to made sure the Lions got some sort of help for their crippled running game.

I asked him what the end result would have been if Bob Quinn had indeed been able to acquire a running back. He replied that he wasn’t sure what I meant by that question.

I followed up by asking him if he felt like that move would put the Lions in the playoffs or even the Super Bowl. He thought for a moment, then said he believed it would give the Lions a chance at the playoffs.

My follow up question was if he would be alright with mortgaging the Lions future to get that running back. To this, he had no answer.

There was pretty much one trade that occurred at the deadline and much of that could be attributed to how high the asking prices were.

I mentioned earlier that the Lions had a very high asking price for Darius Slay. Had the asking price not been so steep, the Philadelphia Eagles who were in serious discussions about Slay just might have pulled the trigger.

Instead, they didn’t and neither did the Lions after hearing how high the market price was for a running back who could help them.

In other words, Bob Quinn refuses to overspend and values his draft picks, which are the future of the team. It also means that he understands that the Lions are not one running back away from being a serious Super Bowl contender.

The Lions are averaging 25.7 points a game on the season. Over the last five contests, they are averaging 28 points a game. All of which has been accomplished without a productive rushing attack.

The only game the Lions ran the ball well was against the Chiefs, a game the Lions lost. What does all this mean? It means the Lions are scoring points and while a better ground game would certainly make the offense even more deadly, we need to consider the real source of the Lions problems; the defense is giving up 26.5 points a game on the season and 29.8 over the last five games.