Don't laugh, Detroit Lions might have deepest WR group in NFL

It's not a stretch to think the Detroit Lions have the deepest wide receiving corps in the NFL.

Last year, the Lions were the only team with two receivers who topped the 1,000-yard mark (the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs each had a receiver and tight end accomplish the feat), and this year, they should be even better with Kenny Golladay entering his second season.

Golladay missed five games as a rookie because of a hamstring injury, but still ranked fifth among first-year receivers with 477 yards.

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Historically, receiver has been one of the toughest positions for rookies to make an impact in the NFL, and often players at the position make a significant jump in Year 2.

"You definitely know a lot more just being in the game," Lions wideout Marvin Jones said Thursday. "The game reps are very important, obviously, and Kenny’s obviously got a lot of those. So just being familiar with football (will help him this fall)."

Jones caught 61 passes for a career-high 1,101 yards (18 yards per catch) and nine touchdowns last season, when he emerged as one of the premier deep-ball threats in the NFL.

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Golden Tate added 92 catches for 1,003 yards, his fourth straight season with at least 90 receptions.

Jones and Tate give the Lions a nice 1-2 punch at receiver, though they're far from the only NFL team that can make that claim.

Antonio Brown might be the league's best receiver, and his teammate, JuJu Smith-Schuster, nearly reached 1,000 yards (he had 917) as a rookie. The New York Giants have a nice pairing of Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard. And in the NFC North, the Minnesota Vikings start the electric Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen on the outside.

All three of those teams has a 1-2 punch on par with or better than the Lions, but none of those teams has a No. 3 receiver that compares to Golladay, whose size (6 feet 4) and deep-ball ability helped transform the Lions offense last fall.

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Several other teams have standout receiving corps, including the Cleveland Browns (Josh Gordon, Jarvis Landry, Corey Coleman) and Los Angeles Rams (Brandin Cooks, Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp), and both the Atlanta Falcons (Calvin Ridley) and Denver Broncos (Courtland Sutton) spent high draft picks on receivers in hopes of creating a formidable trio this year.

Jones, who said he's working feverishly this offseason to better be able to create yards after the catch, stopped short of declaring the Lions the best receiving corps in the NFL on Thursday.

But if Golladay develops as expected, and with TJ Jones (30 catches, 399 yards last season) as a solid No. 4, that's not as far-fetched as it sounds in the post-Calvin Johnson era.

"Right now we’re just doing what we have to do," Jones said. "Obviously what we’ve done in the past, that’s in the past. We just had to be our best selves this year."

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