The Detroit Lions will enter the offseason having basically an empty wide receiver room, leaving us to question if re-signing Marvin Jones will be an option.
It was just a year ago that many of us, myself included, could talk about whether veteran receiver Marvin Jones will be on the Detroit Lions opening night roster, or would the organization opt to trade him as he entered the final year of his current contract?
Well, the Lions decided to hold onto Jones, and it’s a good thing they did. Detroit had been forced to play the majority of the 2020 season without their star receiver Kenny Golladay leaving the veteran Jones to play as the teams’ top outside receiver.
It’s a shame the Lions offense has struggled to deploy all of their top weapons week-in and week-out. Still, if you are an optimist, it’s allowed for second-year tight end T.J. Hockenson to emerge as one of the leagues best at his position, garnering an abundance of targets, many of which would be directed to Golladay.
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With the Detroit Lions organization currently in limbo until the new general manager and head coach are hired leaves predicting possible free-agent targets and re-signing current players difficult, to say the least.
In this case, with the top of the rosters’ receiving corps all pending free agents, re-signing Jones may become a viable option understanding his chemistry with quarterback Matthew Stafford, along with a somewhat thin free agent pool of potential replacements.
It’s a 2021 collection of pending free agent receivers led by Allen Robinson, A.J. Green, Will Fuller, followed by Corey Davis, Marvin Jones, Sammy Watkins, and T.Y. Hilton.
Jones will be coming off of a five-year deal that averaged $8 million per season. According to Spotrac, Jones is in-line to see a pay-raise as they’ve predicted his market value to be $9.5 million per season when he hits the open market considering his production over the last couple of seasons.
It is improbable that the Detroit Lions will choose to spend what it will take to re-sign both Golladay and Jones. Still, if the team, for whatever reason, fails to reach an agreement with Golladay, Jones will remain a viable option mixed in with a plethora of young pass-catchers for the organization moving forward.
There is plenty of hope amongst Detroit Lions fans that the franchise will have an opportunity to pair Golladay with Devonta Smith out of Alabama via the 2021 NFL Draft. That would be a dream scenario for Detroit.
After a slow start to the 2020 season, Jones has gotten it cooking of late, recording 473 yards on 37 grabs and five touchdowns to go with a solid catch rate of 65-percent over his last seven games.
Overall, Jones has made 51 receptions totaling 619 yards, six touchdowns while dropping four balls during the 2020 season. The veteran pass-catcher has earned himself a solid 69.6 rating this season.
During Jones’ Lions career, he’s averaged 829 yards and nearly seven touchdowns per season. Through his first four-plus seasons with the organization, he’s been a very reliable number two receiver and someone the organization will surely consider retaining on a short deal if need be.