6 players who'll be biggest x-factors for Detroit Lions in Divisional Round vs. Buccaneers

5. S C.J. Gardner-Johnson

Gardner-Johnson certainly has an positive intangible impact on his teammates, and tangibly on the field he had an interception in Week 18 followed by seven tackles against the Rams in the Wild Card Round since come back from a torn pectoral.

Gardner-Johnson took a jab at Mayfield last week, however accidentally when talking about facing the Rams' wide receivers and comparing them to Tampa Bay's wide receivers ("if you give that Tampa Bay group a good quarterback").

Mayfield, as expected, saw it (didn't need to be told the details by the reporter who brought it up, apparently) and responded by saying Gardner-Johnson needed to watch more film.

If Gardner-Johnson wanted to get under Mayfield's skin, which can be easy to do, mission accomplished. But that could be playing with fire too, adding fuel to Mayfield's aforementioned competitive fire. He has also been playing very well lately.

Explosive plays in the passing game have been a persistent issue for the Lions' secondary. Gardner-Johnson has had some failures in helping over the top since he came back, rooted in not having played since Week 2 and getting up to speed, communication snafus after having not played for so long, etc.

Getting down to brass tacks of it, Gardner-Johnson needs to have a cleaner game on the field and make an impactful play or two on Sunday.