After what looks like a well-timed bye week this week, these five Detroit Lions players must step up their games.
An early bye week is usually something NFL coaches and players don’t want, and may lament if given the opportunity with so many games to come after. Week 6 is the first week for byes on the 2022 schedule, but the Detroit Lions surely need a week off and they’re getting one this week.
Injured players need to get healthy, coaches clearly need to regroup and reassess after a dismal showing on many levels against the New England Patriots in Week 5. So there’s an opportunity to reset the operation, in a broad sense.
Questions about the Lions’ coaching staff are certainly pertinent, from head coach Dan Campbell to defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn. But the players have to pull their weight too, and plenty have fallen short of where they should be or they were expected to be so far this year.
Apart from any broader talent deficiency on the roster top to bottom compared to other teams, as a bad mark on general manager Brad Holmes, the Lions need more of their best players to perform like they are the best players on the team over the final 12 games of the season.
After this much-needed bye week, these five Lions players must step up their games.
5 Detroit Lions players who must step up their games after the bye week
5. CB Amani Oruwariye
Through four weeks, Oruwariye was graded by Pro Football Focus as the worst qualifying corner in the league. After last year’s six interception breakthrough, he is playing himself right out of a lucrative contract extension the Lions seemed ready to give him back in the offseason.
Oruwariye missed Week 2 with a back injury, and the league’s general emphasis on calling illegal contact seems to have impacted his effectiveness. He was a healthy scratch against the Patriots, which seemed unlikely to happen, and head coach Dan Campbell pointed to lack of special teams contributions as the leading reason for that.
"And the only reason Amani was (not active), he doesn’t do a lot on special teams. Otherwise he would have been here and probably would have played some. But that’s where you get in a pickle with special teams. But yeah, look, you just try and build a little bit of trust in that back end.”"
A week in street clothes and the bye week should give Oruwariye a break he seemed to need–mentally, physically or both. Coming out of the bye, he needs to team with the resurgent Jeff Okudah to give the Lions a capable cornerback duo.