Would you rather Derrick Barnes or Levi Onwuzurike make the Year 2 jump?

There is a light at the end of the offseason tunnel, as Detroit Lions training camp is just about two weeks away. But in the meantime, there is still content to be had and Lions topics to discuss.

On this week’s First Byte podcast, we took a break from our normal interview-style show to play a little game of “Detroit Lions: Would You Rather?” Myself and Ryan Mathews proposed eight different pairings of hypothetical scenarios and debated which of the two was more preferable for the team. It’s a fun exercise to examine what the priorities should be for the Lions right now, and analyze the best and worst case scenarios for the Lions.

One of the more interesting debates we had was this: Would you rather linebacker Derrick Barnes takes a Year 2 jump or would you rather defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike takes that jump. Both players underwhelmed in their rookie seasons, and the Lions are hoping both are capable of making a much bigger impact in 2022. But whose development is more important to the team? Which player’s success would add more value to the defense? Does draft position matter in this scenario?

Here are the other seven “Would you rather...” scenarios we debated:

• Would you rather: Jameson Williams plays before November or D’Andre Swift plays at least 16 games?
• Would you rather: Jared Goff plays well enough to feel comfortable having him starting in 2023 or T.J. Hockenson has a career season?
• Would you rather: The Lions fall just short of the playoffs in 2022 or the Lions finish with the second overall pick?
• Would you rather: The Lions secondary gets settled for the future or the Lions defensive front gets figured out?
• Would you rather: Dan Campbell stays aggressive on fourth down or Aaron Glenn gets the defense to jump to average in 2022?
• Would you rather: The offensive line fully lives up to the hype or Romeo Okwara returns to form?
• Would you rather: Kerby Joseph earns a starting job by the end of 2022 or Malcolm Rodriguez earns a starting job by the end of the season?

We debate all of these topics on this week’s “byte-sized” podcast. Listen below:

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