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Notes: Will the Detroit Lions offense be better in Year 2 under Darrell Bevell?

Do teams improve under Year 2 of a new offensive coordinator? PFF conducted a study to find out.

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Detroit Lions Training Camp Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images

It’s commonly believed that after settling in with a new coordinator, an NFL team will show significant improvement in Year 2. It’s easy logic to follow. The first year, players and coaches are simply trying to get on the same page, learn the correct terminology and put it on the field. By Year 2, some of this stuff becomes second nature and players are able to act more instinctively out there. Players and coaches speak to this phenomenon all the time.

But that doesn’t necessarily make it “real.” So PFF’s Eric Eager looked to see if there were any significant Year 2 jumps for NFL teams between 2014 and 2019 with a new offensive coordinator, keeping the Lions and Darrell Bevell in mind.

Their study is inconclusive, at best. It found no strong correlation between offensive success and years under a new offensive scheme. That being said, Eager still expects to see some improvement in Detroit, simply because they were on the way to drastic improvement before Matthew Stafford’s injury.

“With the NFC North in a period of transition, look for the Lions (+650 on FanDuel sportsbook to win the division) to improve both offensively and as a team,” Eager concludes. “It’s likely in conjunction with Bevell’s second season and not necessarily because of it, though.”

  • Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press basically confirms that Jamal Agnew’s transition to wide receiver is permanent. “Agnew has been attending virtual meetings with both the wide receivers and cornerbacks this spring, but the Lions plan to transition him exclusively to offense when they return to the field this summer,” Birkett writes.

  • Former Lions defensive lineman Lawrence Jackson wants to buy the Detroit Lions. No, seriously, he does:

  • ESPN dropped their 2020 NFL projections based on their FPI model (using Vegas win totals and last year’s performance). Cue the “Dumb and Dumber” so-you’re-saying-there’s-a-chance GIF:

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