Jahmyr Gibbs and four other Detroit Lions who should play more starting in Week 2
It wasn't perfect, as was plain to see and head coach Dan Campbell noted afterward. But the Detroit Lions got it done, beating the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs 21-20 in Thursday night's season opener.
NBC play-by-play man Mike Tirico tried to walk back (seemingly even right after he said it) his "asterisk" comment, as he suggested in the closing moments of the broadcast that the Lions' victory was less meaningful because the Chiefs were without two of their best players (Travis Kelce and Chris Jones). Campbell had the expected response to that, as a bit of a call back to Bill Parcells once saying "you are what your record says you are."
"Well, is there an asterisk next to our 1-0?” Campbell quipped during a Friday afternoon conference call."
- via MLive
The Lions had a plan to ease their set of highly-touted rookies into action during their NFL debuts, with a tough environment at Arrowhead Stadium surely in mind to some degree. And besides tight end Sam LaPorta (83 percent of the offensive snaps against the Chiefs), that came to fruition. That will naturally shift going forward, as those other rookies gain experience and (hopefully) assert themselves among the best players on the team.
Perhaps including but also beyond the aforementioned rookies, these five Lions should play more starting in Week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks.