JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Bankers, accountants, attorneys, pharmacists, journalists, teachers. These are the professions Ameer Abdullah lists when asked what his siblings do for a living. The Detroit Lions' rookie rusher is the ninth of nine children in his family to get a college degree, and for an NFL player he has a lot to live up to.

He has called himself "the failure of the family."

"I've learned sometimes it's best to keep my mouth shut," Abdullah said Friday, "and watch the people in front of you."

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The people in front of him now include wide receivers Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate, and Abdullah has spent considerable time this summer learning route-running from them.

"Sometimes they take the initiative and they see me struggling with a certain route," Abdullah said after the Lions beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in a preseason game. "They'll tell me, 'You may need to time this down a little or up-tempo more.' I'm like a sponge right now, anything they can throw at me."

One of the things the Lions are throwing at him is the ball. Abdullah was sent deep on the first offensive series against the Jaguars – Matt Stafford overthrew him – and it's not hard to imagine the Lions using him as a change-of-pace back to complement Joique Bell's straight-ahead style. Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, who came over from the New Orleans Saints, knows exactly what a smaller-but-quicker pass-catcher can do for an offense; he had one of those in Darren Sproles.

"Teams have to prepare for so many different things," said former Saints and new Lions receiver Lance Moore, "and then you add that back that can be out of the backfield and run routes as a receiver and catch the ball and make plays after the catch. It definitely does wonders for your offense."

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Moore says he can "definitely see similarities in their ability to come out of the backfield; they're very quick and both catch the ball real well," but he cautions that it's way too soon for comparisons. "We don't have a Sproles on this team," he says.

A "Sproles" is something the Lions have needed for many years. The closest version came in 2010 and '11, when running back Jahvid Best provided both east-west speed and receiving ability. The Lions started 5-0 in 2011 before Best suffered a concussion in Week 6 and never played again. He racked up nearly 700 yards of offense in those five-plus games, a lot of it coming when Stafford didn't have Johnson open deep. The team went 5-6 without Best, got shellacked in the first round of the playoffs, and went 4-12 the next season.

Detroit went all-out for free agent Reggie Bush during the next offseason, even bringing Stafford on a flight to recruit the rusher from Miami. Bush proved valuable, and he scored in a playoff loss to Dallas last season, but he had only 550 yards of offense last season, and now he's in San Francisco. Here on Friday, Abdullah was asked pointedly if he was "supposed to be what Reggie Bush wasn't last year." The rookie bristled at that – "I'm a pretty big Reggie fan so it kind of upsets me a little that people rag on Reggie" – but the point stands: The Lions need someone to supplement Bell and Theo Riddick and give Stafford a close-range target.

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