Wednesday open thread: What is the Lions’ biggest surprise so far?

Predictions are always a fickle exercise. Rarely does reality meet up with our expectations, leaving our predictions to look dumb and thoughtless.

Take, for example, some of my predictions for the 2016 Detroit Lions season. You can already bury my prediction for defensive MVP DeAndre Levy, and unless A’Shawn Robinson turns around the defense singlehandedly, I doubt he’ll be the rookie of the year for Detroit.

Three weeks in, we’ve already seen a lot of things we were not expecting from this team. So today’s Question of the Day is:

What is the biggest surprise from the Detroit Lions so far?

My answer: I nearly picked Kerry Hyder, since his production came out of nowhere, but four sacks isn’t enough to blow me away... yet. Instead, I will go with Dwayne Washington.

I will fully admit I did not expect Washington to get more than 15 carries all year. And while I’m not ready to crown him as the Lions’ best, healthy rusher, he has already exceeded my expectations for the entire season. I believed Zach Zenner was going to be the team’s third back, but Washington jumped that hurdle immediately. I thought the Lions would try to bring in a back like Joique Bell when Ameer Abdullah went down, but Washington stepped in as the No. 2 back in Week 3 without hesitation.

Washington’s statline through three weeks isn’t phenomenal: 16 rushes, 70 yards (4.4 YPC) and one touchdown. However, that’s pretty good for a seventh-round rookie, and as long as he stays healthy, those numbers are going to go way up.

Your turn: