3 reasons why the Detroit Lions should start Tion Green

It’s overreaction time! I can’t believe I’m writing this today, but I can’t shake it from my mind. With just four weeks remaining in the Lions season and the likelihood of a playoff appearance dwindling, the Lions should just go ahead and start undrafted rookie running back Tion Green.

It’s odd for me to be here. It was just a week ago when I was telling a POD reader this:

Now I’m hoping that I was wrong and that there is some way to replicate Green’s play on Sunday. This is something that’s probably not going to happen, but after thinking it over, here’s a few reasons I think it could.

I mean, why not?

Like I said, playoff hopes for 2017 are at a low. The Lions have exhausted all their options at this point. Ameer Abdullah is not going to make it happen, Theo Riddick is better utilized in the pass game, Dwayne Washington is probably not going to be here in 2018 and Zach Zenner, while I love the guy, is just not cut out for this.

You’ve tried everything. Why not go with the kid who waited patiently for his chance and by all means, had a pretty decent game against one of the best defenses in the league?

Green had one of the better rushing performances of the year for Detroit

Yes, 11 carries for 51 yards and a touchdown is what passes for “better rushing performances” around Detroit.

Look at it this way: The 4.6 yards per carry that green had against Baltimore is the fourth best of any Lions running back with at least five carries in a game this year. Abdullah went for 5.1 YPC against the Giants and averaged 4.7 in two other games.

The Lions should test to see if Green’s performance was a fluke. I know a lot of people will point to the 33-yard run he had early in the game, but he was still able to gain some ground on other plays in the game. One of those times being his first career touchdown, which was quite impressive, if you ask me.

The Lions are playing poor rush defenses in the coming weeks

This is the perfect time for this experiment. The Lions play the Buccaneers this Sunday. The Bucs are allowing 118 rushing yards a game. That’s 23rd in the league. They also play the Bears (15th,) the Bengals (29th,) and the Packers (14th.) This si the time to try something like this.

The best part is if it doesn’t work out, then you just go back to normal. At this point, anything is worth trying to see what you have.