The Detroit Lions had the second-worst record in 2021, as they went  3-13-1. That earned them the rights to the second-overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft which they used to get Aidan Hutchison. But the star rookie aside, here are three Lions breakout players candidates in the 2022 NFL season.

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Lions Breakout Players for 2022 NFL Season

3. Romeo Okwara

The 2022 NFL season could be Okwara’s last in Detroit, as the Lions have a potential out on the 26-year-old defensive end when it’s all said and done in the next campaign. The odds seem stacked against Okwara mostly because he will have to prove that his devastating Achilles tear that limited him to just four games in 2021 will not hinder him from becoming the impactful defensive piece that he has had shown before his injury.

Okwara has not put together two good seasons in a row since turning pro in 2016. It’s been a roller-coaster of a ride so far in Okwara’s NFL career, which has seen him combine for just 2.0 sacks in his first two seasons before recording 7.5 quarterback takedowns in his first season with the Lions in 2018. Then in 2019, he ghosted Detroit with just 1.5 sacks before posting a career-high 10.0 sacks to go along with an NFL fifth-best total of 61 pressures the year after. If that topsy-turvy trend continues, then Okwara’s on-field performance could be in for a big leap in 2022.

2. Kalif Raymond

If you think Raymond already had his breakout year in 2021 when he posted career-high numbers of 576 receiving yards, four touchdown catches, and 48 receptions on 71 targets, then you have a good case. But there’s also an argument to be made that his real breakout season will be in 2022.

Granted that Raymond is expected to have a tougher competition for targets this time around because of the arrival of DJ Chark and Jameson Williams, the re-signing of Josh Reynolds, and the presence of Amon-Ra St. Brown, the 27-year-old Holy Cross product can still be viewed as a potent weapon with a sizeable role waiting for him downfield this year. For one, he has Jared Goff’s trust.

In fact, Raymond had the second-most targets among wide receivers last season. Goff surely isn’t forgetting that Raymond was also among the Lions’ most reliable red-zone targets in 2021, catching six of eight targets inside 20 yards and converting those receptions into a pair of touchdowns.

1. Jared Goff
The 27-year-old Goff used to produce big numbers on the field, and that was when he was still playing within the system of the Los Angeles Rams. Apparently, being around Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp, and a prime Todd Gurley will make a quarterback look handsome in the pocket, which was the case for Goff, who racked up over 18,000 yards and 107 touchdown passes in five years in Tinseltown. But Goff is no longer with the Rams. Instead, he got sent to Detroit in 2021 where he experienced what it’s like to direct an offense with a much lesser collective talent than that of the weapons he had downfield in Hollywood. In his first season with the Lions, Goff was a mere afterthought, primarily because no one was really minding the Lions, who waited 13 weeks into the 2021 NFL campaign before scoring a victory.

The Lions just had too many holes from the top to down of the roster that their struggles couldn’t just be pinned on Goff. That’s also why it’s easy to overlook Goff when thinking about which quarterbacks would boom in 2022. And in that context, Goff is a sleeper with a solid chance to break out this coming season.

For one, Goff will have a much experienced and more talented pieces to work with. The Lions have so far done some considerable work in improving their offensive roster in the offseason. They signed wide receiver DJ Chark to a one-year deal worth $10 million back in March. Chark played in just four games with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021 because of injury, but he should be perfectly healthy this coming season, giving Goff a former Pro Bowler as a top target. Goff will also have rookie wide receiver Jameson Williams in his arsenal.

As a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, Williamson should be able to carve out a significant role in the Lions’ offense that showed a lot of promise in the last few appearances of Goff last season. The Lions are giving Goff another go perhaps in part because he popped like a tier 1 QB in his last four starts with Detroit. In that span, Goff had 965 passing yards and nine touchdowns against just four interceptions. On a per 17 games average, that pace would have 4,101 passing yards, 38 touchdowns, and only 8 interceptions. Whether football fans still care about him or not, it appears that Goff has already laid out the foundation for a strong 2022 campaign.