5 Detroit Lions who must step up their games after the bye week

2. RB D’Andre Swift

Swift missed the last two games heading into the bye week, as he added a shoulder injury in Week 3 to an ankle issue he had been playing through. In the three games he has played he is averaging 8.6 yards per carry and 9.6 yards per reception, as he’s lapping the field in a deeper metric.

The critical thing for Swift is of course health. He is in a special class of running backs based on pure talent, and a difference-maker the Lions’ offense needs/has missed. He just can’t seem to avoid injuries, for whatever reason.

Swift is in the third year of a four-year contract as a second-round pick in 2020, so there are contract implications for him if he can stay healthy and produce at a high level.

Getting healthy and staying that way over the rest of this season would go a long way toward Swift securing a long-term future in Detroit, not to mention impacting what had been one of the league’se best offenses before the Week 5 dud at Foxboro. After the bye is a critical stretch for him, and he needs to answer the bell.

1. WR DJ Chark

Chark missed the Lions’ last two games going into the bye week with an ankle injury. Before that he struggled to consistently connect with Jared Goff, with seven catches for 98 yards on 18 targets (a dismal 38.9 percent catch rate) and including a catchless game in Week 2 against Washington.

Chark’s struggles are not rooted in Goff not being willing to throw downfield. The Lions’ signal caller is averaging 9.1 intended air yards per attempt (6.6 last year), which is fifth among quarterbacks with at least 100 pass attempts according to NextGen Stats.

With the debut of rookie wide receiver Jameson Williams coming sometime within a few weeks after the bye, the time for Chark to fully emerge as a top weapon for the Lions this season is running short.

The injury that cost him the last two games obviously hasn’t helped, but Chark has to come out of the bye week with a strong performance against Dallas in Week 7. And ideally he’ll carry that kind of good performance beyond that.