Lions’ Broyles at ease battling for final WR spot

There were days last year when Ryan Broyles would go home after practice and vent.

To his wife. To his friends. To his pastor from college. Even to Twitter.

“At the end of the day, that wasn’t the best way to go about it,” Broyles concedes now of the cryptic tweets he sent last October after he was used sparingly in a win over the Minnesota Vikings.

This year, though his future with the Lions — and in the NFL in general — is more in limbo than ever, Broyles is more at ease with his lot in life.

There are no rants in the privacy of his own home, no frustrated tweets cued up, just a realization that he’s doing all he can to make the 53-man roster, and whether he does or not is largely out of his control.

“Last year I took it a lot harder than I did this year,” Broyles said. “Going out there, trying to compete, new coaching staff comes in, I’m coming off the injury, I had a lot to think about then. But I guess I’m another year wiser and more complacent, so all I can do is put my best foot forward and God will take care of the rest, honestly.”

A 2012 second-round pick out of Oklahoma whose career was sidetracked by three straight years with season-ending leg injuries, Broyles appears to be a long shot to make the roster.

He doesn’t have as much upside as Corey Fuller or TJ Jones, lacks the versatility of Jeremy Ross and the experience of Lance Moore and has not stood out like Greg Salas, who seems to be creeping up the depth chart after his big game in last week’s exhibition-opening win over the New York Jets.

Broyles and that quintet of players are fighting for probably three roster spots behind Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate, and how they perform over the next three weeks — including today’s game at Washington — will go a long way towards determining who makes the team.

“One game in, we still got three left,” Broyles said. “Those guys got a plan upstairs and there’s guys that are on fringe like myself and that is what is. I got to come out here and compete every day, and I would do that if I had spot or not. So there’s really not much more I can do on my end but just come out here, prepare and win over the coaches.”

After appearing in just five games and catching two passes last year when the Lions were playing with a beat-up receiving corps, that’s easier said than done.

Broyles, who tore the Anterior Cruciate Ligament in his left knee as a senior at Oklahoma, has been a bit player for two head coaches and three position coaches thus far in his injury-riddled Lions career.

He played in 10 games as a rookie before tearing the ACL in his right knee, and six games into his comeback in 2013, ruptured his left Achilles tendon.

Last year, Broyles went through his first injury-free season since 2010. Asked about what was different compared to past years, Broyles noted his mentality.

“I’m a lot smarter for sure,” Broyles said. “A lot smarter.”

But are you the same athlete?

“Without a doubt,” he said. “I think as you age, a little of that may go away, but there’s times and places where I’m more explosive than I was back in the day. So I guess you got to just play it how it is.”

The NCAA’s career receptions leader when he left school, Broyles still feels he can produce. He’s sure-handed, as he showed in practice Monday when he ripped an interception away from R.J. Stanford, precise with his routes and over any mental hang-ups he had about his injuries.

“We all feel like we’re Megatron to be honest,” Broyles said.

Lions coach Jim Caldwell declined to handicap Broyles’ chances of making the roster, though he said this week that Broyles is “right in the thick of things in terms of how he’s progressing.”

“He’s functioned very, very well in practice and I would just anticipate they would carry that over into the ballgame and the opportunities they get they have to be able to take advantage of it,” Caldwell said. “But he works, he knows his craft, he knows how to play his game and we’ll see how he goes.”

Broyles, who said fatherhood — he and his wife, Mary Beth, welcomed their first son, Sebastian, earlier this year — has helped keep football in perspective, isn’t fretting about what the future might hold, either.

“Man, all you can do is take care of yourself and do the best you can,” he said. “If there’s a place for you, there’s a place for you. If not, hopefully there will be somewhere else. But if football’s over, I’ve always been future minded so whatever happens, happens. As long as you give it your best in any situation in life, it is what it is.”

FAST FACTS

Matchup: Lions (11-5 in 2014, 1-0 exhibition) at Washington Redskins (4-12, 1-0).

When: 7:30 tonight.

Where: FedEx Field, Hyattsville, Md.

TV/radio: Channel 2 in Detroit, WXYT-FM (97.1).

Online: See our live blog at freep.com.

Lions’ depth chart for tonight

Offense

POS

1ST TEAM

2ND TEAM

QB

Matthew Stafford

Dan Orlovsky

RB

Theo Riddick

Ameer Abdullah

WR

Calvin Johnson

Corey Fuller

WR

Golden Tate

Jeremy Ross

TE

Brandon Pettigrew

Jordan Thompson

TE

Eric Ebron

Joseph Fauria

LT

Riley Reiff

Michael Williams

LG

Manny Ramirez

Laken Tomlinson

C

Travis Swanson

Taylor Boggs

RG

Larry Warford

Braxston Cave

RT

Cornelius Lucas

Corey Robinson

Defense

POS

1ST TEAM

2ND TEAM

DE

Ziggy Ansah

Larry Webster

DT

Tyrunn Walker

Jermelle Cudjo

DT

Caraun Reid

Gabe Wright

DE

Darryl Tapp

Devin Taylor

OLB

DeAndre Levy

Josh Bynes

MLB

Stephen Tulloch

Travis Lewis

OLB

Tahir Whitehead

Kyle Van Noy

CB

Rashean Mathis

Josh Wilson

CB

Darius Slay

Chris Owens

S

Glover Quin

Don Carey

S

James Ihedigbo

Isa Abdul-Quddus

Special teams

POS

1ST TEAM

2ND TEAM

K

Matt Prater

Kyle Brindza

P

Sam Martin

Kyle Brindza

KR

Jeremy Ross

Ameer Abdullah

PR

Jeremy Ross

Ameer Abdullah

By the numbers

Wide receiver Ryan Broyles has been with the Lions for three seasons. His stats in that span:

YR

G

TGT

REC

YDS

AVG

TD

2012

10

32

22

310

14.1

2

2013

6

14

8

85

10.6

0

2014

5

5

2

25

12.5

0

TOT

21

51

32

420

13.1

2