Georgia Football: Will D’Andre Swift beat out Kerryon Johnson as Lions’ RB1?

The Lions turned many heads when they picked D’Andre Swift in the second round. Will the Georgia football star overtake Kerryon Johnson in Detroit?

Lions fans have had it rough for a while now. Pretty much nothing good has happened for Detroit for a long time. In fact, their last playoff win was in 1991, about six years before I was brought into this earth. Following that, the Lions have only made the playoffs eight times, losing in the wild card round every single time.

The point I’m trying to make here is that the Lions don’t have much to look forward to come the football season. And so, what’s left of Detroit’s fanbase turn their heads to the draft each and every season, hoping they’ll finally get a few guys to turn their franchise around.

This season, among two running backs, the Lions selected RB D’Andre Swift. Obviously, with a strong young running back named Kerryon Johnson on the roster, many people questioned the decision to take a running back so early in the draft. The Lions have a plethora of issues, but running back might be the only truly secure position on the team.

Will the Georgia football star start as a rookie?

But the draft is behind us and the Lions can’t un-pick Swift. So this leads us to the real question: Will Swift beat out Johnson?

The former Bulldog running back has that it factor that you only see once or twice in each draft. There’s no question of his football abilities, but rather a huge question of whether he’ll get a real chance at some playing time. Granted, Johnson did appear to digress a bit in 2019, leaving his position as starting running back vulnerable. The Lions may have added Swift in an attempt to give Johnson more competition, trying to get the best out of both backs. Even so, this would be an odd use of resources.

Swift showcased a fully rounded game in college, putting together nearly 3,000 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns in three years. This came along with 666 receiving yards, an easy number to blame if his career goes down hill in the Motor City.

He’s a hugely versatile back, with great vision and patience without sacrificing any athletic attributes. He wasn’t playing low level competition in college either, as half of the games in his final season were against top 25 teams. There were no signs of struggle at all in those games, and he actually put up better stats than he did against the unranked teams for the other portion of the season.

At this point, every indicator points to the fact that he will succeed on the Lions. On paper, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be playing ahead of Johnson in due time. He was drafted eight picks earlier than where his new counterpart was two years ago, making him a slightly higher priority. He was seen as the second best running back prospect, while Johnson’s career hit a skid in his second year.

I’m not a betting man, but if I was, I’d say the Georgia product is the starter in a couple years at most.

These two careers may be intersecting at the perfect time or the worst time, we’ll just have to wait and see. Neither back should be happy about the situation, but at the very least it’s an opportunity for them to prove themselves in the face of adversity.