Which Detroit Lions rookie needs to shine the most in 2020?
By Robert Jones
The Detroit Lions got high marks for their draft, but which rookie needs to shine the most?
The Detroit Lions are hoping their virtual offseason will be a success and their newly acquired free-agents as well as draft picks can assimilate the material. After all, the learning curve is a little different when everyone isn’t on the practice field together.
For the Lions’ veteran signings, this isn’t the ideal way to acclimate themselves to new teammates and a new system, but they at least have experience playing in the NFL. The speed of the game won’t be different and many of the teams on Detroit’s schedule are opponents the Lions’ newcomers have faced before or are familiar with.
Meanwhile, just because Lions fifth-round pick Quintez Cephus is from the University of Wisconsin, doesn’t mean he knows what to expect from the Green Bay Packers. Not only will training camp be one big baptism under fire for the Lions rookies, but the preseason will be more eye-opening than usual considering how little actual work these youngsters will have had.
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The 2020 season will be the year of rookies literally being thrown to the dogs. Instead of the gradual progression of getting used to the speed of NFL players in the offseason and having the opportunity to learn from their own mistakes as well as the mistakes of their new teammates, they will get their hands burned throughout training camp and the preseason.
Any opening-day rookie starters may be a little more wide-eyed than usual. And for good reason. There just clearly hasn’t been enough opportunity for these kids to get their feet wet.
Instead, they will be tossed into the deep end of the pool without so much as a lifejacket. Sink or swim. But there will be rookies who find their way. Some may take a little longer than others, but there will be rookies who make a valuable impact. For the Lions, the question is; which rookie needs to make the most impact?