This Detroit Lions wide receiver deserves a Pro Bowl bid
The Detroit Lions have not had a good year. However, this player should be recognized for his stellar play in what has been less than ideal circumstances.
The Detroit Lions have had a dismal year after starting off the season on a promising note with a 2-0-1 record, and could have easily been 3-0. However, after some bad luck and some terrible refereeing the Lions quickly dug themselves into a hole they couldn’t climb out of, plummeting to a 3-9-1 record as of today.
The Lions went from potential playoff team to fighting for the right to draft Ohio State defensive end Chase Young with the second overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Most of the fault lies on the defensive side of the ball for the Lions as they have been, put plainly, awful.
Offensively, the Lions have been fine, even after the injury to quarterback Matthew Stafford. Sure, they went from one of the best offenses in the NFL to just average, but when working with your third string quarterback as your starter that’s actually pretty good all things considered.
And one of the biggest reasons why the Lions have been able to keep the offense afloat while Stafford has been down is because the Lions have one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. Kenny Golladay, the third year receiver out of Northern Illinois, has been a force to be reckoned with this year as he has piled up the yards and touchdowns.
Golladay has played five games with either quarterback Jeff Driskel or quarterback David Blough at the helm and has still managed to put up impressive numbers despite the big drop off in talent at the quarterback position. Without Stafford throwing the ball to him, Golladay has caught 18 passes for 368 yards at a rate of 20.4 yards per catch and three touchdowns.
On the season Golladay has brought in 53 receptions on 93 targets, 1,008 yards at a clip of 19 yards per catch, and 10 touchdowns. His stats put him first in the NFL in touchdown catches, third in yards per catch, and ninth in receiving yards.
In the NFC, Golladay is currently 12th in targets, seventh in yards, ninth in yards per game, first in touchdowns, and first in yards per catch. These numbers while also having to deal with below average quarterback play in the last five games are impressive. It’s hard to argue that he wouldn’t be even higher on those lists had Stafford not been hurt.
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Kenny Golladay has been a godsend for this offense and he 100 percent deserves to be elected to the Pro Bowl this year. The stats back it up and his claim to a bid gets even stronger when you consider his quarterback situation for the past five games and, most likely, for the next three games as well. Golladay should see himself being flown out to Orlando in 2020, and if he’s not it will be the biggest snub at the position in years.