Jeremy Kerley could benefit from Megatron’s retirement

When you suddenly lose a receiver with the abilities of Calvin Johnson, there will always be growing pains trying to replace him. The Detroit Lions went out and signed Marvin Jones to a hefty five-year $40 million deal, which is a bit steep for a guy that has had trouble staying on the field and wasn’t too consistent in his time with Cincinnati. To boost their depth, the Lions also added Jeremy Kerley on a small, one-year contract.

Neither receiver is a true replacement for Johnson, but they’ll try their best to catch whatever Matthew Stafford throws their way. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if the Lions grabbed someone in the upcoming draft.

That said, someone is going to have to replace the 150 targets Johnson saw last season. The Lions aren’t going to turn into a run-first team overnight.

It’s hard to see them using running backs in the passing game even more than 2015 as well, with Theo Riddick, Joique Bell and Ameer Abdullah combining for 165 targets. Golden Tate will probably see an uptick in numbers, but even so, he won’t get much higher than the 128 targets he got last year.

Eric Ebron may be the biggest benefactor on the current Lions roster (69 targets last year), but he’s still a guy that’s hard to trust.

Third-year receiver TJ Jones is expected to fight for a spot and he finally found some playing time at the end of last year, although still only finished with 10 receptions. He’s a sixth-round receiver who was hurt his entire rookie season.

Kerley might end up being someone to keep an eye on. Stafford has thrown the ball a ridiculous amount over the last five seasons and that’ll more than likely be the case again, even without Calvin Johnson on the receiving end.

Now, Kerley may only deserve a look in deeper leagues of 12 teams or more, pending on what happens in training camp and the rest of the offseason for the. He’s not even getting ranked in the top 120 of the FantasyPros consensus rankings. That’s fine. At the least, Kerley should win a spot on the Lions roster for his return capabilities, something they won’t want Tate doing as the No. 1 WR.

03JANUARY2016: Cincinnati Bengals Wide receiver Marvin Jones (82) against the Baltimore Ravens at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by John Sommers II/Icon Sportswire)

As said earlier, those targets have to go somewhere and it’s hard to see Marvin Jones stepping in and getting 150 targets. Playing alongside one of the game’s best receivers (A.J. Green) and tight ends (Tyler Eifert), Jones still only managed 65 receptions for 816 yards and four touchdowns last year with the Bengals.

Kerley is simply someone to keep an eye on. He’s still only 27 years old and has been a New York Jet for his entire career, meaning he’s never had an elite quarterback or played in a pass-first offense. Yet there were times when Kerley was actually the first option in the Jets offense. He was cut by the Jets mainly because the new coaching staff had no use for him.

Like Kerley said, “New coaching staff came in, they already knew the guys they wanted to play. They already had their scheme going, and they wanted bigger receivers.”

If the Lions felt the same way about him, they wouldn’t have signed him.

Kerley isn’t the same type of touchdown threat as Jones, which is an obvious statement. Kerley will be coming out of the slot and Jones is five inches taller and extremely acrobatic on the outside. But Kerley’s best season is quite similar to what Jones produced, as he had 56 receptions for 827 yards back in 2012.

Lance Moore, at 31 years old, wasn’t a perfect fit for the role last year for the Lions, but Kerley could be the guy.

And then you throw in the possibility of Marvin Jones getting hurt with more play time and T.J. Jones still not panning out, and Kerley could end up being the third or fourth option in this offense.

Kerley might not be a receiver to waste a draft pick on, but he is someone to keep an eye on as the offseason moves along. He’s in a much better situation than a year ago, and in a pass-heavy offense, someone will have to catch Stafford’s lasers, and it’s unlikely Marvin Jones will see 200 targets to his name.

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