Lions News

[whatever_gong82]

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2024/08/28/detroit-lions-allen-robinson-receiver-practice-squad/74987544007/

[maxw3ll]

Quite a bit surprised that the Lions put Jake Fromm State Farm on the PS and not Sudfeld. Wonder what happened that turned Nate from their #2 guy to not even on the team in about a week.

He played against no competition but got the ball out on schedule with accuracy. I bet he looks better than Nate across all three games if given the chance. Not hard but still.

[maxw3ll]

They put DPJ on the practice squad.

Do you think he has some kind of nagging injury that has hampered his play?

It seems strange that the Lions still have hope for him

I live in the Denver area and they are bummed about losing Tim Patrick to get younger at WR. He was a good player for the Broncos that worked his way up and earned opportunities. Good hands and routes. Only downside was health.

Not sure he is better than Reynolds at this point but they could be close if he can stay on the field.

[whatever_gong82]

Film review: What are the Lions getting in WR Tim Patrick?


Justin Rogers
Aug 28

New Detroit Lion player Tim Patrick.jpg

Allen Park — Before you get beyond this first sentence, I acknowledge it was ridiculous to pour this much effort into a practice squad signing.


It is. I’m not making excuses. That said, there’s something about Tim Patrick’s makeup, résumé and historical production that could fill an obvious void on Detroit’s roster. I couldn’t help but find the potential fit intriguing.

So I pulled up a couple of games from 2021, the last season he played before injuries robbed him of two years of football. Before I knew it, two turned into four and four turned into the entire season.


To be clear, I didn’t watch all 1,081 offensive snaps from the Denver Broncos’ 2021 campaign. Don’t be ridiculous — at least not more ridiculous than I am for willingly tackling this study. But I did watch every one of Patrick's 85 targets to get a sense of his abilities as a receiver. We're just going to have to lean on Pro Football Focus to get a sense of his aptitude as a blocker. I trust you understand.

Let me just say, the film is impressive. So instead of keeping what I learned to myself, allow me to share it with you.


Statistics

2018: 16 games, four starts, 41 targets, 23 receptions, 315 yards, one touchdown

2019: Eight games, two starts, 31 targets, 16 receptions, 218 yards, 0 touchdowns

2020: 15 starts, 79 targets, 51 receptions, 742 yards, six touchdowns

2021: 16 starts, 85 targets, 53 receptions, 734 yards, five touchdowns


Athletic profile

Coming out of the University of Utah in 2017, Patrick posted elite measurables, in part due to his impressive 6-foot-4, 210-pound frame.

In addition to the size, Patrick ran a sub-4.5 40-yard dash with well-above-average 10- and 20-yard splits. He complements his length with explosive leaping ability, posting top-tier results in the vertical and broad jumps.

Patrick is also strong for his position, hoisting the bar 22 times in the bench press. If there is a weakness in his profile, it’s his lateral agility. Regardless, an average result in the 3-cone drill showcases adequate change-of-direction acceleration to round out a complete profile.


Tim Patrick and his RAS grade at Utah.jpg

Durability

This is, by far, the biggest question with Patrick. Prior to seeing some reps in the preseason this year, he hadn’t played in a game since 2021 after tearing his ACL in 2022 and his Achilles in 2023.

Additionally, in 2019, he missed half the year with a broken hand.


Collectively, they raise reasonable concerns about his durability, but they are fluky in nature and likely unrelated, although it's possible the Achilles was weakened by compensation during his ACL rehab.

Unlike most players who earn an injury-prone label, Patrick hasn’t dealt with a steady string of soft-tissue issues. Obviously, with two significant lower-body rehabs the past two years, there are legitimate questions about how much his athleticism has and can rebound, especially as he nears his 31st birthday. That said, the movement skills looked good in his limited preseason snaps this month.


Alignments

Focusing on the 2021 season, Patrick primarily lined up wide, but showed he's versatile enough to operate in the slot, logging nearly a quarter of his snaps inside. Occasionally, he would set up attached to the line or slightly offset in the backfield, like an h-back.

He’s unlikely to contribute on special teams given his age and injury history. The last time he was significantly involved with those groups was in 2018, his first season on the Broncos’ main roster.


Release

Patrick is tough to defend at the line. When jammed, he leans on his power and is rarely derailed by the cornerback, easily driving through the contact, even when the defender is able to get a hand into his chest.

When pressed without the jam, he shows an impressive amount of wiggle at the snap, often getting the coverage off balance as he establishes his desired track, whether inside or outside the defender.


Route running

Without knowing much about Patrick heading into this study, his route tree and ability to create separation out of his breaks was the biggest surprise.

Patrick runs routes at all depths, although he wasn’t utilized as the target on quick outs or wide receiver screens, likely because he’s more valued as a blocker on those designs.


When operating in the shorter areas of the field, his primary routes were outs, digs, curls and shallow crosses. Within that set, he displayed surprising quickness, occasionally feigning one direction because spinning to change his course, leaving the defender in coverage leaning the wrong way and scrambling to recover.

On crossing patterns, he’s adept at navigating through traffic to maintain his momentum. The Broncos also had him routinely stem a shallow cross vertically in an attempt to attack zone coverages.


When facing off coverage, Patrick used his stride length to quickly close space. He showed a good feel for the corner’s hip flip, knowing when to slam on the brakes and come back for the ball on deeper curls. And when running in-breaking patterns, he effectively utilizes head and shoulder fakes to successfully get the coverage leaning the wrong way.

Running deep, his straight-line speed stresses the safety, but cornerbacks don’t seem to have much trouble staying in phase.


Separation

According to NFL’s Next Gen stats, Patrick averaged 2.8 yards of separation. That’s average, but good for a guy with his size and length. As noted above, his ability to create cushion shows up while running short and intermediate patterns, through both his releases and the nuance in his breaks at the top of routes.

Patrick didn't get nearly as much separation on deep balls. Perhaps it’s because cornerbacks are anticipating those throws, and safeties are ready to help over the top, due to the frequency of downfield shots the Broncos took to the receiver (more than 20% of his targets were 20 or more yards beyond the line of scrimmage in 2021).


Ball skills

There were fewer back-shoulder balls than you might expect on Patrick’s film, but there are two traits that stand out.

First, he attacks the ball at the end of his routes, taking an extra step toward the pass when possible to eliminate the defensive back’s ability to break up the throw at the last moment.


Patrick is also not afraid to go up and take away the pass from a smaller defensive back. He best demonstrated this ability on a deep touchdown against the Bengals in Week 15, undercutting the defender and leaping to make the grab. The only downside is he drew a penalty for celebrating with a “too small” taunt.

There is an occasional lack of awareness near the sideline. On multiple snaps near the boundary, he made the catch, but didn’t get both feet down.


Hands

They’re better than average. Pro Football Focus assigned him five drops in 2021, but I had four, disagreeing with a ball that was too high from quarterback Drew Lock against the Ravens in Week 6.

Patrick has 9 1/2-inch mitts and generally catches the ball away from his frame, routinely showcasing an ability to haul in imperfect throws that are low or behind him.


All of his drops came during the second half of the season, including a pair on consecutive plays against the Lions. Each could be classified as a concentration lapse, including one in the season finale against the Chiefs, when he got too focused on turning upfield and didn’t secure the ball first.


After catch

Patrick doesn’t generate a lot of YAC, averaging a modest 3.8 yards. Defenders are wise to chop him down immediately because he’s eager to try running through them if allowed to get his momentum going upfield.

He has enough speed to occasionally get an edge in the second level when running crossing patterns, but he’s more likely to embrace contact than outrun it. That means he’s not going to make many tacklers miss, but he’s more than content to make them hurt.


Football IQ

Patrick's IQ shows up both in his ability to find space against zone coverage and adjust on a scramble drill, giving his QB a target when the designed play breaks down.

One of Patrick’s strengths is his ability to get to a soft spot against zone coverage, quickly making himself available to his quarterback. Then, once the ball is in his hands, he gets turned around just as quickly to maximize the gain, even if it’s simply going from 5 to 9 yards.


And when a play breaks down, often because of pressure, Patrick works to give his QB a target. The best example came in Week 16, against the Raiders, when he broke an intermediate out route back toward the line of scrimmage to give his quarterback — rolling away from a collapsed pocket — an answer to that side of the field.

On top of the route adjustment, Patrick demonstrated some of his best body control during the play, toe-tapping both feet in bounds for the 13-yard grab to move the chains on the second-and-9 snap.


Blocking

As noted, we’re going to lean on PFF for the blocking evaluation. Among the 121 receivers with at least 100 run-blocking snaps in 2021, Patrick graded out 37th, with better marks on zone runs than gap concepts.

His blocking grade, which admittedly isn’t the most concrete metric, is within a comparable range to Josh Reynolds and Amon-Ra St. Brown in 2023.


Email: jrogers@detroitfootball.net

X: Justin_Rogers

[edindetroit]

Seems to be some conflicting info on DPJ. Shefter reported it, but haven't seen him on any lists.
image.png

Glad they kept Jemar Jefferson on the PS.

[El Axe]

PS really isn't that important, but just to recap for my own understanding.

Zonovan Knight, Nate Sudfeld, Steven Gilmore & Mathieu Betts seem the most prominent from camp not signed yet.

They'll IR Cominskey soon and probably replace him with Peko. That leaves 2 spots.

Practice Squad only has one safety, CJ Moore, and no CBs. Gilmore or another CB from somewhere else seems likely.

edit: maybe a kicker? They can't be 100% confident in Bates.

[froot loops]

I wouldn't say the PS isn't important. When you have a team with good depth the PS is part of that depth. An average NFL team is going to play 70-75 players. The Lions were elevating 2 players a week. If your front office knows what it's doing it is an advantage especially if they have the salary cap space to do the elevations.

[mason reese]

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2024/8/29/24231204/why-detroit-lions-havent-re-signed-donovan-peoples-jones-practice-squad-yet

[Mainevent]

Roster gymnastics!

[El Axe]

and we chose Allen Robinson, DPJ & Tim Patrick. Seems a little underwhelming, but it is choosing from the bargain bin.

[El Axe]

I wouldn't say the PS isn't important. When you have a team with good depth the PS is part of that depth. An average NFL team is going to play 70-75 players. The Lions were elevating 2 players a week. If your front office knows what it's doing it is an advantage especially if they have the salary cap space to do the elevations.

I agree. I typed it "wasn't that important", but in my head I was emphasizing the word "that". That didn't come across in my post (see what I did there :-))

[Iron Lion]

ESPN has been listing Justin Jackson on the Lions roster for months now and it's fucking weird.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/team/roster/_/name/det/sort/position/dir/asc/detroit-lions

The roster is otherwise completely up to date. I don't know if it's a glitch because we had 52 at the cut down date. But he was on there before that. He's been there who knows how long. Wondering if it's some kind of inside joke.

[El Axe]

More Roster Gymnastics

We now have 52 & 15, one spot on each

[edindetroit]

I wouldn't say the PS isn't important. When you have a team with good depth the PS is part of that depth.

Correct

[froot loops]

I kind of think DPJ, Patrick and Robinson on the PS is ok. You can elevate them and use them. One of the problems of trying to find those big, bodied X receivers is there aren't that many of them. You can find a ton of slot receivers. But this offense is rarely throwing high point balls to outside receivers.