Lions running backs D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams excelling in deeper rushing metric

The Detroit Lions rushing attack has been very good so far this season, so it’s not too surprising D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams are excelling in a deeper metric.

The Detroit Lions have the NFL’s highest-scoring offense through four weeks this season, and as shown in Week 4 it almost doesn’t matter who isn or isn’t available.

The ground game hasn’t missed a beat with whoever has been toting the rock, as D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams have produced as a “Thunder and Lightning” duo.

With Swift (ankle/shoulder) missing Week 4 and lined up to miss another game this week, Williams has taken the lead back role.

Ben Baldwin of The Athletic plotted out a graph of NFL running backs through four weeks, based on expected yards per carry and actual yards per carry. The X-axis is expected yards per carry, via NextGen Stats, and the Y-axis is actual yards per carry. The further up and right on the chart someone is, the better based on these two data points.

D’Andre Swift in his own stratosphere in exceeding expected yards per carry

Williams is in a solid place on this graph, with an expected yards per carry around 3.7-3.8 and an actual yards per carry so far this season of 4.5. He’s above the good/bad line Baldwin drew into the graph, which is a testament to how good he’s been alongside and in place of a banged up Swift.

But Swift, aided surely by two 50-plus yard runs, is in his own stratosphere here. An expected yards per carry of 5.7 is very good, as a testament to the second-level and downfield blocking he has been getting. But he’s actually averaging 8.6 yards per carry in the three games he has played, so he’s doing plenty to take advantage of having space to run.

The Lions have two very good running backs with different, complementary skill sets, and it’s further reflected in a deeper metric compared to other backs in the league.