After taking Jameson Williams in the first round of this year’s draft, a wide receiver has been named has been named a prospect to watch for the Detroit Lions looking toward the 2023 draft.
Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes has aggressively turned over the team’s wide receiver depth chart over the last year, with multiple moves to add depth and talent. In April’s draft, an aggressive move up in the first round netted wide receiver Jameson Williams.
But this side of Williams and Amon-Ra St. Brown, the Lions have wide receivers on short contracts (Chark, Josh Reynolds, Kalif Raymond). So there’s a case for the position as a long-term need, if only for depth purposes.
Mike Renner of Pro Football Focus has named a 2023 draft prospect each NFL team should be watching during the 2022 college football season.
For the Lions, it was TCU wide receiver Quintin Johnston.
"They’ll obviously be eyeing the quarterback market, but this is now too good a roster to have one fall in their lap. They may look elsewhere to address quarterback and focus on providing whoever that is with weapons.While the receiving corps got an overhaul this offseason, D.J. Chark is only on a one-year deal. Johnston could provide a similarly rangey target in the offseason. The 6-foot-4, 201-pounder is a man possessed with the ball in his hands — he’s broken 26 tackles on 55 catches in his career."
Detroit Lions 2023 NFL Draft watch: TCU wide receiver Quentin Johnston
Over two seasons thus far at TCU, Johnson has averaged 20.4 yards per catch with eight touchdowns on 55 total receptions (33 receptions for 634 yards and six touchdowns last season). He has also run for two touchdowns in his career.
Check out a film breakdown of Johnston, courtesy of Devy to Dynasty Football.
If Chark is only signed in Detroit for one year, so if he’s gone next offseason Johnston has a comparable skill set and would seem to be a pretty seamless fit for the Lions.
Rooted in his potential, Johnston is considered a potential first-round pick next April at this early stage. To solidify that stock, he’ll have to put it all together and get to another level of overall production for the Horned Frogs during the approaching season.
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