Lions' hopes still high for 'pretty impressive' Ebron

PHOENIX -- Jim Caldwell can't wait to get his hands on Eric Ebron when the Detroit Lions begin formal off-season workouts next month. When he does, the second-year Lions coach expects to see a whole new tight end.

"Let me tell you something," Caldwell said at the NFL owners meetings Wednesday. "His off-season, to this point, has been pretty impressive. Now, I'm anticipating, just because I know kind of what he's been doing, working at it, I'm anticipating to see a pretty significant rise in his performance."

Caldwell declined to specify what Ebron is doing, other than "concentrating on the things that he needs to improve upon." And he's not the only one who expects the Lions' first-round pick last May to take a big step forward in his second NFL season.

As a rookie, Ebron caught just 25 passes for 248 yards and missed three games with a hamstring injury. He was slow picking up the Lions' playbook coming out of training camp, was troubled by drops early on, and spent the fall being compared with rookie stars picked after him, such as Odell Beckham Jr. and Aaron Donald.

Beckham, who was taken two picks after Ebron, at No. 12 overall, had 91 catches for 1,305 yards in just 12 games. Donald, the 13th pick, was NFL defensive rookie of the year.

Asked how frustrating it was to watch them have success last year while the playoff-bound Lions got little out of Ebron, Caldwell said Beckham and Donald are outliers when it comes to the typical growth of a young player in the NFL.

"Here's the thing about it, if you take a look at a number of guys, and not just those guys in particular, most of the guys that excelled, most guys didn't think they would excel," Caldwell insisted. "You have the benefit of hindsight. We all have the benefit of hindsight. So before it all started, you wouldn't have said that if you took a look at them -- other than Sammy Watkins. So let's not play that game, for the most part.

"The fact of the matter is I feel good about what we did, and I think it's going to pay off for us. It got us to the point where we got into the playoffs in our first year. That was good, not great. We've got a ways to go and a lot of work to do, but I do think what we've done, decisions we've made, they've benefited us."

Many across the league, including several in the Lions organization, gushed about Beckham and Donald in the predraft process last year.

This week, Lions general manager Martin Mayhew praised Ebron's development and said in an interview Tuesday on SiriusXM NFL radio that he can be the Lions' No. 3 receiving option this year, an assessment Caldwell signed off on.

"He's young, he's developing, he's coming along," Caldwell said Wednesday. "We certainly don't believe that he's hit his stride, in that sense."

Despite his rather pedestrian numbers, Ebron, who turns 22 next month, did make substantial gains as a blocker last year, and his athleticism and ability were evident in spurts down the stretch.

Late in the season, Ebron seemed to have passed Brandon Pettigrew as the Lions' No. 1 tight end, and he closed the year with three catches for 21 yards in a playoff loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

This year, Caldwell said he wants Ebron to be more consistent with his route running and be more at ease with the offense, in general.

"He's shown flashes, and so, obviously, those are the key things," Caldwell said. "He improved in his blocking, there's no question about that, from the line of scrimmage. Did a tremendous job coming along in that particular area. But don't get me wrong, it's not like he's going to all of a sudden be Charlie Sanders. But I think he's going to be much better than he was."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.