ALLEN PARK -- Kerryon Johnson ran between the guards a lot at Auburn, and there's nothing wrong with that. He led the SEC in rushing doing it. He was named the best offensive player in the country's best conference.

Clearly, it worked.

But the Detroit Lions think there's a better way to use him.

"They basically run between the guards," general manager Bob Quinn said. "I think this guy's very versatile -- that he can run inside -- but I think we'll use him more to run outside as well."

Nobody has produced fewer rushing yards the last three years than Detroit. Nobody was worse in short-yardage either. Quinn said he was "bothered" by it, and the last four months, he's rolled out a plan to completely retool the attack.

That includes hiring a new offensive line coach, Jeff Davidson, to re-imagine the blocking concepts. That includes using a first-round pick on Frank Ragnow, one of the best interior offensive linemen in the country. And it of course means bringing in new backs, including LeGarrette Blount in free agency, and Johnson and fullback Nick Bawden in the draft.

Assuming Theo Riddick retains his role as the primary pass-catcher out of the backfield, Detroit has cooked up a fierce running back competition that pits Ameer Abdullah, Zach Zenner, Tion Green, Dwayne Washington and Bawden against each other for the last one or two jobs.

"I'm happy to be a piece of anybody's puzzle," Johnson said. "I'm ready to come in and work. That's what I feel like this organization loves to do, is work. That's what everybody knows Detroit for -- being a hardworking city -- and I'm looking forward to stepping in that and doing the same."

No matter how it shakes out, Johnson and Blount figure to be the primary ball-carriers. And with the 247-pound Blount still one of the best power backs in the league, Johnson is expected to handle more of the outside stuff.

That's a sharp departure from how he was deployed at Auburn, which asked him to do much of his work up the middle even though he weighs just 206 pounds. He's not exactly built like your prototypical power back. Yet he was terrific, averaging 115.9 yards per game last season. That led the SEC and ranked 15th nationally.

He was good in the role.

But when Quinn watched the film, he saw something else. He saw a patient runner who could stretch a defense horizontally. And when he leaned back in his chair after the first round and thought about what he wanted to accomplish on Day 2, he just couldn't get Johnson's name out of his head.

Once running backs Nick Chubb and Ronald Jones went in the first six picks, Quinn grew concerned somebody else might take him. So he shipped his fourth-round pick to New England in exchange for moving up eight spots to go get his man.

"He's a guy that we kind of targeted at the start of the day, (after) thinking about it overnight," Quinn said. "Going back this morning, looking at the draft board with the staff, he was a guy that we were hoping was going to fall to us. But we really couldn't say for sure that he was going to. So, felt fortunate to move up those number of spots and get Kerryon on the team."

Johnson did battle some injuries at Auburn, although Quinn said he passed multiple physicals with the Lions, both at the combine and during an official visit to Detroit. The team has no long-term health concerns about him, and hopes using him less as a power guy will help preserve his health.

"Hey, you draft players out of the SEC, they're going to be a little banged up," Quinn said. "But he's good to go."

While the SEC might have worn down Johnson, it also prepared him for the NFL as well as any league can. And there is a hope that experience will help expedite his transition to the league.

"I think it's the closest to the NFL," Johnson said. "It's not the NFL, obviously. But you looking at first round, you have what, 10 SEC guys or something like that go? We've got great talent on both sides of the ball, so the competition and the speed of the game is as close as you're going to get to the NFL. Hopefully that helps as a learning curve and, you know, helps me to succeed at the next level."