Ebron says rookie year 'not a disappointment'

Eric Ebron was banged up last year and not especially productive, but the Detroit Lions tight end didn't walk away from his rookie year hanging his head at what he accomplished.

"My rookie season to me was not a disappointment," Ebron said today in his first extended comments to reporters of training camp. "To everybody else, it might have been but, to me, it was a learning experience, and I've learned what I learned, and now I'm here for what they say your sophomore year or your second season to be 20 times better than I was my rookie season."

The 10th overall pick in last year's draft, Ebron caught just 25 passes for 248 yards and one touchdown last year and missed three games with a hamstring injury.

Lion compares Ebron to Jimmy Graham

He played a smaller-than-expected role in a Lions offense that was supposed to rely heavily on the tight end, and his numbers paled when compared to others drafted around him in a strong rookie class of pass catchers.

Odell Beckham Jr., the 12th pick of the draft, caught 91 passes for 1,305 yards in 12 games, and Mike Evans (the seventh pick), Kelvin Benjamin (the 28th) and Sammy Watkins (the fourth) all finished in the top 25 in receiving yards.

Ebron said a number of injuries from college, which he did not specify the nature of, contributed to his play last year, when drops were an issue early in the season.

"I wasn't 100% last year," Ebron said. "It is what it is. I came out of college with a bunc h of nicks and bruises and it stuck with me throughout the season. I could never get healthy, but now I found myself a very good trainer and a very good off-season staff to help me and they prepared my body for 16 (games), we're going deep in the playoffs ... Nah, I'm just kidding. So forever long we play this season for, they prepared my body for it."

Healthy now, Ebron has had a solid camp overall and was listed as a starting tight end (along with Brandon Pettigrew) on the Lions' first depth chart of the season released Monday.

He still battles drops on occasion, but the Lions expect him to be their No. 3 receiving option behind Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate.

"Once the ball's in his hands, I think that's going to be the most exciting thing for our organization, for this team, for this fan base," tight ends coach Ron Prince said. "Once (he) gets to the point where we can consistently get the ball into his hands in space then I think that's where all of the hard work and the study and the focus and the training is really going to help us. And we expect that sooner rather than later."

Lions' battle at LG will continue for a while

Ebron expects big things from himself.

He said Tuesday he has no regrets for how last year played out — “God has a plan for everybody and whatever happened, happened, and all I can do is build on it and just keep moving forward,” he said — but he spent much of the off-season training in Ocean City, N.J., and got his body “back to the way I was in college.”

He spent a few days last month running routes and working out with Matthew Stafford and other Lions in Atlanta, and Ebron said he has a better knowledge of the offense and more support from teammates.

“It feels better knowing you know what to do, I’ll tell you that,” Ebron said. “But it feels better just knowing that you have trust in your teammates and that they believe in you.”

After some initial doubts because of his training-camp struggles last year, Ebron said he did some soul searching, talked to a few confidants and realized that, “You know what, I can do this,” a belief he’s carrying into the season.

“I never really evaluated my rookie year, I just kind of put it past me to move forward,” he said. “The people around me, the people that I put around me this off-season kind of evaluated me and set goals for me — well, we set goals together on what needs to be achieved this season, so that’s kind of how we’ve been attacking this off-season is with our goals in mind.”

Whatever those goals are, and they’re private for now, Ebron said this is the year he’ll show people “who I really am.”

“You’re not going to get anything different,” Ebron said. “This is who I am. I’m a clown, I have personality, but I’m here, and when it’s game time, I came here to make plays.”

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

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