One year ago, the Lions brought in LeGarrette Blount to be their power back. They gave him $2 million up front, a premium for a player who’d won two straight Super Bowls, and they rode him as if he was a critical investment.

It’s one of the reasons Matt Patricia’s first season went so awry. Blount started half the games but averaged just 2.7 yards per carry, looking every bit like a 32-year-old running back on high mileage.

The plan this year so far doesn’t seem to be wildly different in philosophy, but the execution could give it a better shot. With Kerryon Johnson returning to be the lead back, Detroit signed C.J. Anderson, another familiar friend on a one-year deal expected to bring a power element to the offense.

The difference is that Anderson is younger, cheaper and fresher than Blount. The 28-year-old will carry a cap hit of $1.4 million in 2019, and he has about half of Blount’s career carries.

Like Blount, Anderson is coming off a strong postseason run that ended in the Super Bowl. He ran 89 times for a whopping 5.5 yards per carry on 89 totes after the Rams literally plucked him off his couch to provide relief to Todd Gurley late last year.

Detroit Lions running back LeGarrette Blount (29) is tackled by Minnesota Vikings linebacker Eric Wilson (50) during the second quarter of their NFL game at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, December 23, 2018. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

Also like Blount, Anderson is a player whose success can be difficult to separate from the offensive line he was playing behind. But Anderson’s track record before the stint in Los Angeles is encouraging, too. He ran for more than 1,000 yards on 4.1 yards per carry for the Broncos in 2017. That came behind a line coached by Jeff Davidson, who is overseeing Detroit’s ground game now.

Listed at 5 feet 8 inches and 225 pounds, Anderson has been passed over by plenty of teams in part because two-down backs simply have lesser value these days. His physical shape can make it hard for him to win over teams in a workout, and Detroit passed on him as well last fall before the Rams scooped him up. But on 760 career carries, Anderson is averaging 4.5 yards a run. He might not look the part all the time, but he has played it wherever he has been.

If Detroit has any doubts about Anderson, that could also help make him a better success. It invested far too much into Blount after it was clear a month into the season that he wasn’t anywhere near Johnson’s level as a runner or even a highly capable short-yardage option. Matt Patricia had a difficult time going away from a player he loved to be around during their time with the Patriots, but once he finally did and gave carries to Zach Zenner, the running game saw better success. Zenner averaged 4.8 yards per carry with the Lions last year, running behind the same line where Blount averaged 2.7.

If Anderson isn’t effective, Zenner will still be around to take some of the relief carries behind Johnson. What’s more likely, though, is that Anderson is more capable at 28 years old and 760 career carries than Blount was at 31 and 1,341.

All free agents are calculated risks, but Detroit seems to have made a safer gamble in this year’s veteran power back.