The Detroit Lions lost Calvin Johnson to retirement, but they added probably the marquee free agent receiver on the first day of free agency. They signed Marvin Jones away from the Bengals yesterday. Jones isn't Megatron, but it's a good signing, and it seems to be a good landing spot for him.
Back in 2009, when Matthew Stafford first took over as Detroit's starting quarterback, neither the Bengals nor the Lions had quality passing offenses; both were ranked 20th or worse in passing that year. Since that time, the Lions have ranked in the top 12 in passing in every season, while Cincinnati has ranked that high just once.
Jones caught 65 passes for 815 yards and 4 TDs last season. He's definitely going to be working in a more productive passing offense in 2016. In the table below, the first set of numbers shows Cincinnati's passing numbers, the second set Detroit's.
| PASSING OFFENSE, 2009-2015 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | CinYd | CinTD | CinRk | DeYd | DeTD | DeRk |
| 2009 | 181 | 21 | 26th | 198 | 16 | 21st |
| 2010 | 235 | 26 | 13th | 238 | 26 | 12th |
| 2011 | 209 | 21 | 20th | 301 | 41 | 4th |
| 2012 | 224 | 28 | 17th | 308 | 22 | 2nd |
| 2013 | 259 | 33 | 8th | 280 | 29 | 3rd |
| 2014 | 214 | 20 | 21st | 252 | 22 | 12th |
| 2015 | 245 | 31 | 15th | 263 | 33 | 9th |
Similarly, Travis Benjamin left the Browns for the Chargers on the first day of free agency. He's not stepping into a guaranteed No. 2 role, but he's being paid very well, so it's very possible he'll be their No. 2. Like Jones, he's moving on up in going from Cleveland's passing offense to San Diego's.
In that same time period, San Diego has finished outside the top 10 in passing offense just once. Cleveland, in stark contrast, has finished 19th or worse in all but one of those seasons. In the table below, the first set of numbers shows Cleveland's passing numbers, the second set San Diego's.
| PASSING OFFENSE, 2009-2015 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | CleYd | CleTD | CleRk | SDYd | SDTD | SDRk |
| 2009 | 130 | 11 | 32nd | 271 | 29 | 5th |
| 2010 | 187 | 13 | 29th | 282 | 30 | 2nd |
| 2011 | 193 | 16 | 24th | 277 | 27 | 6th |
| 2012 | 215 | 16 | 19th | 206 | 26 | 24th |
| 2013 | 253 | 26 | 11th | 271 | 32 | 4th |
| 2014 | 217 | 12 | 20th | 256 | 31 | 10th |
| 2015 | 236 | 20 | 21st | 287 | 30 | 4th |
Setting aside the obvious increase in pay scales, looks like good moves by Marvin Jones and Travis Benjamin.
--Andy Richardson

