As the franchise’s 93rd season winds down, here are the five out of nowhere productive individual seasons in Detroit Lions history.
The Detroit Lions’ 2022 regular season is ending with a chance to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Worst case, they finish 8-9 in Dan Campbell’s second season as head coach after going 3-13-1 in 2021 and starting this year 1-6.
The Lions have gotten an out of nowhere great season from rookie edge rusher James Houston, who has eight sacks in six games after a three-sack performance against the Chicago Bears in Week 17. Early expectations were not necessarily high for a raw sixth-round pick, but he has exceeded them and the future is bright.
A hat-tip here should also go to Jamaal Williams this season. With one game to go this season, he is one shy of tying Barry Sanders’ single-season franchise record for rushing touchdowns (16, in 1991). He is also a virtual lock, six yards shy with one game left, to become the Lions’ first 1,000-yard rusher since Reggie Bush in 2013.
The Lions have had Hall of Famers take the field for them, and (as any team does) plenty of non-descript players who had pop-up good seasons and were never really heard from like that again.
On that note, and with honorable mentions of Houston and Williams even though they won’t make the list, here are five random, out-of-nowhere productive individual seasons in Detroit Lions history.
5 out of nowhere productive individual seasons in Detroit Lions history
5. TE Joseph Fauria
Fauria did not have nearly as long a NFL career as his uncle Christian did, playing just two seasons–both with the Lions as it were.
As a rookie in 2013, Fauria had 18 catches for 207 yards and seven touchdowns. That touchdown mark was second on the team, behind only Calvin Johnson..
Fauria’s random seven-touchdown rookie season feels a lot like what the Lions have gotten from their tight ends this year. Shane Zylstra and Brock Wright have led the way to a franchise single-season record for touchdowns by the position, despite the midseason trade of T.J. Hockenson.
4. DE James Hall (2004)
Hall signed with the Lions as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Michigan in 2000. He toiled fairly non-descriptly for his first four seasons–though he did start 30 games over the 2002 and 2003 campaigns.
Then in 2004, Hall exploded with 11.5 sacks (tied for sixth in the league), 10 tackles for loss and four forced fumbles (tied for seventh in the league). He suffered a broken hand in the first game that season, and not only played through it but produced big.
Hall earned a contract extension from the Lions with that perfomance in 2004, but they traded him to the St. Louis Rams in 2007. He had another out-of-nowhere boom season in 2010 for the Rams, with 10.5 sacks. He spent 2011 with the Rams, and his NFL career was over. Playing 12 NFL seasons as an undrafted free agent when the average career for anyone (drafted or undrafted) is far shorter, is quite an accomplishment on its own.
Over his other six seasons in Detroit, Hall totaled 21.5 sacks with no more than five sacks in any of those. He had his big season in 2004, and was otherwise not a big producer even as he became a regular.
3. RB James Stewart (2000)
Stewart had 931 yards and 13 touchdowns for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1999, so it was something that may have made you go “hmm” when they allowed him to leave in free agency. The Lions signed him, and installed him as their lead back for head coach Bobby Ross.
Modern sensibilities bring cringes when we look at Stewart’s average of 3.5 yards per carry in 2000. But he did run for 1,184 yards and 10 touchdowns, getting there on sheer old-school volume (339 carries; fourth-most in the league). In a lean into modern times for running back usage, it’s worth noting he averaged a solid 9.0 yards per catch (32 for 287, with a touchdown).
That first season in Detroit is the only of Stewart’s career where he played all 16 games, and he topped 1,000 rushing yards one time otherwise (2002 with the Lions, his final NFL season as it were, with a shoulder injury late that season ending his career).
The Lions have gotten some good pop-up seasons from running backs over the years (Kevin Jones, Joique Bell, Theo Riddick, etc.). But Stewart’s old-school workhorse campaign in 2000, the second-most recent 1,000-yard rusher for the Lions (pending Jamaal Williams getting the six yards he needs in Week 18), gets the nod here.
2. WR Germane Crowell (1999)
The Lions drafted Crowell in the second round (50th overall) of the 1998 NFL Draft out of the University of Virginia. He had 25 catches for 464 yards (18.6 yards a catch) and three touchdowns as a rookie, and over five seasons as a Lion (and in the NFL) he did not reach 40 catches in four of them. In 2000 and 2001, he played in 14 of a possible 32 games and he missed 24 games over the 2000-2002 seasons.
But in between his rookie season and those couple of injury-marred seasons, that lone exception was a big one. Crowell had 81 receptions for 1,338 yards and seven touchdowns in 1999. That catch total ranked 10th in the league, and the yardage was sixth-best.
Crowell was released by Detroit early in 2003. He did not sign with a team for the 2003 season, despite some rumored interest from teams, then New Orleans Saints gave him a shot in 2004. But a right knee injury led to him being waived/injured in August, and his playing career was effectively over.
But for that one shining season, Crowell was a combination of size (6-foot-3, 213 pounds) and speed at wide receiver the likes the Lions have not necessarily seen very often.
1. WR Mike Furrey (2006)
Furrey came into the NFL as a wide receiver with the Indianapolis Colts in 2000, spending that year on the practice squad. He played for the Las Vegas Outlaws in the first rendition of XFL in 2001, then made his way to the Arena League with the New York Dragons for two seasons (2002 and 2003). He came back to the NFL with the St. Louis Rams in 2003, before moving to safety for them in 2005.
The Lions signed him in 2006, and moved him back to wide receiver.
Furrey had 98 receptions (second in the league, on 146 targets) for 1,086 yards and six touchdowns in 2006 for the Lions. He was of course a major unexpected fantasy find, finishing as a top-20 wide receiver in standard scoring.
Furrey actually had a fairly decent follow up in 2007 with the Lions, with 61 receptions for 664 yards. But he had just 18 catches in 2008, his last season as a Lion, then he had 23 catches in 2009 with the Cleveland Browns as he was moved back to defensive back some. That 2009 campaign would be the last games he played in the NFL, as he didn’t last to the season with Washington in 2010.
Furrey moved into coaching after his playing career was over. He is currently in his second stint as the head coach at Limestone College in South Carolina. Most notably, he was wide receivers coach for the Chicago Bears from 2018-2021.
The 2006 season accounted for 44.3 percent of Furrey’s 221 NFL receptions, 47.3 percent of his 2,298 career yards and 85.7 percent of his touchdowns. A nearly 100-catch season for a guy who played in the XFL, played in the Arena Football League and played a lot of defensive back in the NFL is as out of nowhere as it gets, certainly in Lions history, if not league history.