WR Marvin Jones is odd man out, but Detroit Lions like 'what he's bringing to the table'
Marvin Jones’ second go-round with the Detroit Lions has been a struggle, but even with Jameson Williams set to return to the lineup Sunday, Lions wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle El insisted there still is a role for Jones on offense.
“The opportunity’s going to be there and the reason is like, guys run different things,” Randle El said. “There’s certain things I wouldn’t put Jamo on that I would put Marv on. And vice versa. You would think I could put (Amon-Ra St. Brown) on everything, and he would think so as well. But we just don’t. It’s like, ‘Ah, give it to Marv,’ or give it to somebody else to run. So that’s the way we work it from that standpoint.”
Jones, who had 289 catches for 4,296 yards in five seasons with the Lions in 2016-20, has seen his playing time decrease amid minimal production through the first four weeks of the season.
Jones lost a fumble and dropped a pass in the Lions’ Week 1 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, then went two games without a target while playing about half of the Lions’ offensive snaps in games against the Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons.
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Last week, he played a season-low 21 snaps and dropped his only target in a win over the Green Bay Packers.
The oldest receiver in the NFL, Jones, 33, has contributed as a blocker to the Lions’ rushing success, but has struggled to get separation from defenders in the passing game — he averaged less than 2 yards from the nearest defender on his six targets the Chiefs, when he caught his only two passes of the season for 8 yards — and his path to more playing time seems limited now that Williams is back practicing after serving a four-game suspension.
St. Brown leads the Lions with 26 catches and 331 receiving yards, and Josh Reynolds and Kalif Raymond are locked into the second and third receiver spots.
Williams, the No. 12 pick of last year’s draft, adds a field-stretching element to the Lions offense, and Jared Goff also has leaned heavily on rookies Sam LaPorta and Jahmyr Gibbs in the passing game.
The Lions do not have to clear a roster spot to bring Williams back to their 53-man roster – they’ve been operating with only 52 players since placing Khalil Dorsey and Josh Paschal on injured reserve Sept. 16 – so his job does not appear to be in immediate jeopardy even though he could be inactive Sunday against the Carolina Panthers as the team’s sixth receiver.
Both Williams, if he plays, and rookie receiver Antoine Green have special teams ability, while Jones does not play in the kicking game.
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Randle El said he’s confident Jones would contribute if he had a bigger role on offens. For now, he’s happy with “Marv and what he’s bringing to the table for us .. not just on the field, but in the room, too.”
“Being that 12-year veteran, I can be explaining something and some of the young guys are like, ‘Nah, Coach, I don’t see it like that,’” Randle El said. “And then Marv’ll say something, it’s like, ‘Oh. They get it.’
“But Marv’ll be fine. He’ll bounce back more and more. That first game was a little, like, ‘Ah,’ for him from that standpoint. Two drops, I think he had, and he had the turnover, so that was not what he was used to from the standpoint, in terms of his play. So now it’s just opportunity comes his way, being able to make a play. And certainly, we got a long season. We need every guy. Every guy. That’s the way it works.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Marvin Jones still in Detroit Lions WR mix as Jameson Williams returns
