It’s mailbag time! Every week this fall, Dave Birkett will answer your Detroit Lions questions. Send them via Twitter to @davebirkett or by email to dbirkett@freepress.com.

Name the receivers in the league you’d take over Kenny Golladay right now — @shunkheem

Lots of questions about Kenny Golladay this week, so I figure this is as good a place as any to start.

Golladay has absolutely emerged as the Lions’ No. 1 receiver five games into his second NFL season, even though he trails Golden Tate in both yards and catches. Right now, Golladay is on pace for 86 catches and 1,370 yards. I’m not quite sure he reaches those numbers when this season is all said and done, but there’s no reason he shouldn’t at least go 75-1,100 with eight or nine touchdowns.

Now for the question, there’s plenty of ways to interpret this. Am I taking the receiver for a game? A season? The rest of his career? For purposes of this discussion, let’s say we’re talking the balance of the season, and with that being the case, there aren’t many receivers I’d choose over Golladay.

Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham, DeAndre Hopkins and Julio Jones are the four best receivers in the NFL in my opinion so let’s start there. Mike Evans is a similar big-bodied pass-catcher who has done it longer with a lesser quarterback and is about the same age as Golladay, so I’d give him the edge. Michael Thomas, too. Lions fans won’t like this, but Adam Thielen is so smooth that I’d probably take him for the final 11 games over Golladay. Tyreek Hill is such a unique weapon that I’d love to have him on my make-believe team. And even at age 30, A.J. Green belongs on the list.

There’s other good receivers out there, guys like Brandin Cooks, Jarvis Landry, Keenan Allen and Davante Adams, but I don’t know that I’d take any of them over Golladay right now. Golladay is so big and physical that he can do things some of those other guys can’t. You’re splitting hairs when it comes to choosing between that group, but I think Golladay is in that tier of receiver, which is pretty damn good.

With the emergence of Golladay how likely is it to retain Jones, and Tate? Can the cap allow that many big salaries going forward? — @Z_schaaf26

Another Golladay question … Marvin Jones is under contract for two more seasons at reasonable salaries of $6.5 million. He’s off to a bit of a slow start to the season, but it would be foolish to part with him anytime soon. Jones is the type of vertical threat who complements Golladay well, and if for some reason the Lions wanted to go in another direction, they’d have to pay more for someone who might provide less.

The bigger question is what do the Lions do with Tate this offseason, and I think that decision will come down to one thing: Money. Tate is having a really nice year with 33 catches for 431 yards through five games. He’s in the same class as Landry as a slot receiver, though his age (30) will prevent him from landing a top-of-the-market deal.

Still, Tate will get paid well in free agency, and the interest he draws from other teams might make him too expensive for the Lions. It’d be a huge risk letting him go. Brandon Powell is the heir apparent on the team, but if he’s not ready a suitable replacement won’t come cheap.

If I had to guess, Tate plays somewhere other than Detroit in 2019, but if the Lions really want him back they have enough cap room that that shouldn’t be an obstacle.

More from Monarrez:How can Lions not pay hero, humanitarian Golden Tate now?

Any reason to worry about Prater? Only has a long of 43 this season and team seems hesitant to send him out plus 50 yards.... — @QuallsD_

Matt Prater has made just 1 of 4 field goals this season of 40 yards or longer, which seems odd to type given how reliable he was from long distance (or any distance, really) last year. Prater has not made a kick of 50-plus yards since last Thanksgiving, and he’s coming off a game in which he badly missed a 55-yarder wide right.

At 34, Prater is no spring chicken, but I think the sample size is too small to worry about yet. One of his three misses on the season came after a high snap, and the Lions just haven’t had a ton of field-goal opportunities.

It’s a situation worth monitoring, but the Lions aren’t dialing up anyone on their ready list yet.

Do you see Ameer Abdullah becoming my part of the rb rotation. — @LionLenny

Nope. Not unless Kerryon Johnson, LeGarrette Blount or Theo Riddick get hurt.

Do you think we will see Tyrell Crosby get any reps at G or T this year? Sounds like this year is a development year for him. — @DoctorOSP

Nope. Not unless Decker or Rick Wagner get hurt. Crosby has practiced primarily at offensive tackle this year, and he’s dressed as the team’s swing tackle every game. Had the Lions wanted to use him at guard, they could have already in either of the games T.J. Lang missed.

Here’s what offensive line coach Jeff Davidson had to say about Crosby earlier this week: “He’s got the same thing that Frank (Ragnow) has had. We’ll try to work on one thing to improve on each day and we’re looking for continued development for the time that he is asked to step in.”

Dave, do journalists have deadlines anymore and length limits, or has the internet made it so that you publish when it is done and it is as long as it needs to be? — @dbishop1102

We do still proudly publish a newspaper every day here at the Free Press — stop by and pick one up sometime! — so yes, both those things still apply. For 1 p.m. games on Sundays, the deadline isn’t really an issue to get stories in the paper. For 4 p.m. games, it’s a bit more of a time crunch. And for night games, it’s not feasible to put all the content we produce in the next day’s paper. Most of those stories live largely online.

As much the internet has changed everyone’s work flow, and it has, deadlines and length still matter. In fact, given the way people consume news these days, they may even matter more. There are definitely higher traffic times during the week — it's much better to publish a story at 10 a.m. Tuesday than 2 p.m. Friday, for instance. And especially on mobile, analytics say people don't read certain types of stories if they're too long.

So as much as our world as journalists has evolved, some of the same constraints we've always lived by still apply.

More:

Lions cut TE Eric Ebron; would they do it again with a re-do?

Does Lions defense still need Ziggy Ansah?

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!