The Detroit Lions have struggled this season Ameer Abdullah has been one of the lone bright spots and he has moved into the starter role over Joique Bell heading into Week 4. Jim Caldwell said that the team still plans on splitting time with Bell and Theo Riddick and fantasy football owners should look at those players along with Eric Ebron as sleeper options for Matthew Stafford.
The Lions have not been off to a great start at 0-3 and the offense has not played up to expectations either. The team has the Seattle Seahawks in Week 4 and that is a home game, so maybe not all hope is lost as the team tries to avoid an 0-4 start. Abdullah has been more consistent and more impressive than Bell this season and while he had a down week against the Broncos in Week 3, the Lions plan to continue using him as their lead back.
Abdullah once again had more snaps than Bell in the game on Sunday and this season he has 82 yards rushing and seven catches for 72 yards and two total touchdowns. Abdullah also makes an impact returning kicks and that is an added value element for fantasy owners. Bell is not a bad handcuff to have for Abdullah owners and Riddick is also an option, but only in deeper leagues.
Head coach Caldwell expressed confidence in both Abdullah and Bell after struggling in Week 3 and the Lions likely will continue to push the running game to help open things up for Stafford. The team is now 0-3 and they have a tough hole to climb out of if they want to compete for the playoffs. The team made it last season and with the Packers in the division and other NFC teams playing well, the Lions have to reel off a few wins in a row to get back in contention and things will not get any easier this week, as the opponent is the Seattle Seahawks.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Caldwell said that the team is not giving up on Bell this season and that he thinks that "he'll get there," referring to where Bell was last season. Last year Bell had a career season with 860 rushing yards to go along with 34 catches for 322 yards and eight total touchdowns, but this season has not been close to that so far. Bell has just 22 yards on 20 carries and he has put up just five catches over the first three games. The Seahawks may not be the best opponent to try and get Bell going, but the Lions will try and do that in Week 4.
The Lions could be staring at 0-4 all of a sudden and that would give this season a very different feel compared to what was happening last year. Stafford has been getting banged around behind a leaky offensive line and the weakness of that unit was evident against the Lions. The team could not get things going in the running game and Stafford constantly had to look over his shoulder at the pass rush, meaning he did not have much time to find his receivers either.
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