Roary
Well-known member
- Mar 18, 2019
- 1,742
- 0
Getty Images
As the Lions continue to search for a high end running game, a high-round draft pick at the position currently isn’t participating in preparations for Week One.
Via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Swift has missed seven practices with a lingering leg injury.
Given the lack of an offseason program and the overall oddity that is the 2020 training camp, Swift’s inability to practice could affect his ability to play when the games start.
“I think [missing time] in general, with rookies, is a concern,” Lions coach Matt Patricia said Friday, via Birkett. “Just in general with a normal season when we have the spring and we have the preseason and when we get to the regular season, things happen a lot quicker and they’re a little bit more complex than what we’ve seen.
“So we’re going to have to do a good job of making sure that he’s acclimated when he is ready to go to be in situations that we think he can handle and kind of work him in that way until we build up a little bit of a background, a little bit of a repertoire for him where he knows maybe what he’s going to see in those certain situations.”
Swift is expected to complement Kerryon Johnson, a player with significant potential whose best season to date has generated only 641 rushing yards.
Since Barry Sanders abruptly retired 21 years ago, the Lions have had only three players who rushed for more than 1,000 yards: James Stewart (twice), Kevin Jones, and Reggie Bush. They haven’t had a running back crack four digits since Bush did it in 2013.
The highest rushing output in those 21 years came from Stewart, who had 1,184 yards in 2000. During Sanders’ 10 NFL seasons with the Lions, he had significantly more yardage than that in nine of them.