Every week during the regular season Tim Twentyman will answer 10 good questions from his X account @ttwentyman in a feature we call "10 Questions with Twentyman."
20man: Right now, the Lions (9-1) are the No. 1 seed with the Eagles (8-2) at No. 2. The Vikings (8-2) are No. 5 with the Packers (7-3) at No. 6.
The Lions still have games against the Vikings, Packers, Bills (9-2) and 49ers (5-5) left on their schedule. Only the San Francisco game is on the road Week 17.
The Eagles still have road games at Los Angeles Rams (5-5), at Baltimore (7-4) and at Washington (7-4). They also have a home game vs. Pittsburgh (8-3) Week 15. There are some tough games in there.
The Packers play the 49ers at home this week and still have games at Detroit, at Seattle (5-5) and at Minnesota. There's also a home game vs. a dangerous Miami (4-6) team left too.
The Vikings still have to go to Detroit and Seattle. They also have Arizona (6-4) Week 13 at U.S. Bank Stadium and an Atlanta (6-5) team coming to town that can be dangerous.
There's still a lot of football to be played, but I view the Eagles as Detroit's biggest threat to the No. 1 seed, and I believe it will take at least 14 wins to secure it this season.
20man: It's a good question because it's not often a second-round pick can't get on the field more, but it's a credit to the way Amik Robertson is playing in the slot right now. Robertson is a crafty veteran who is physical in both the pass and run game and certainly isn't afraid to come up and hit someone. That fits this Lions new-look secondary to a tee. He's only allowed one touchdown in his coverage area all season and that was pretty good coverage on Minnesota's Justin Jefferson.
Rakestraw has gotten 46 reps at corner and nearly 100 on special teams. This could be good for him in the long run. He's getting a chance to watch a veteran play the position at a high level while mixing in some. I get the sense it's making him hungry to improve his game and contribute more, and that's not a bad thing for a young player.
20man: That's certainly a credit to Dan Campbell, Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn and their ability to adjust to personnel, but I've always said this is a player's league. That's not possible without Lions GM Brad Holmes signing and drafting versatile players that can do a lot of different things and play different spots. That's really what makes scheme versatility possible. The Lions have a lot of versatile players on both sides of the football that allow their coordinators to attack teams a lot of different ways.
20man: It's been a brutal 2024 season for Ifeatu Melifonwu so far. He missed the first nine games of the season due to an ankle issue that lingered longer than the Lions first thought. He was just getting ready to return to the lineup when he suffered a finger injury in practice last week that forced the Lions to put him back on IR. Now he won't be eligible to return until at least Dec. 22 vs. Chicago.
Best case scenario is he maybe makes it back for last couple weeks of the regular season and a playoff run, but there's no guarantee of that. It's really too bad - I was looking forward to seeing how Glenn deployed Melifonwu with Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch at safety too. There's some versatility to his game the Lions could certainly use with all the injuries on that side of the ball so far.
20man: A couple things. Sam LaPorta suffered a hamstring injury in training camp that lingered into the regular season with the coaches really trying to manage his reps. He also missed a game and a half with the current shoulder issue he's dealing with. That's No. 1.
No. 2 is the emergence of Jameson Williams. He's become a big part of this offense, and we knew those targets would have to come from somewhere. Last season through 10 games, LaPorta had 69 targets and 50 receptions. That's dipped to 32 targets and 25 receptions this season. We also can't discount the attention teams place on LaPorta after a Pro Bowl rookie season.
LaPorta was big in the win in Houston. He's trending toward a return this week after missing last week's game with shoulder injury and I'm guessing he has an impact against an Indianapolis defense that ranks 27th in fantasy points allowed to tight ends this season.
20man: Not so much an unfamiliar player, but I suspect we'll see a much bigger contribution from Za'Darius Smith this week and moving forward. Glenn said the plan is to increase his reps and deploy him all over the defensive front.
Smith has some of the best hands among edge rushers in the game and it's tough for defenders to get a good grasp on him and to hold on long. The more comfortable he gets in the scheme the more plays he's going to make. The Colts rank 18th in sacks allowed this season.
20man: As of right now, I don't expect it to have much effect. Jack Campbell takes over the green dot as he'll call the plays and make the adjustments. He's more than capable. A lot of the production the Lions miss with Alex Anzalone out will fall on Malcolm Rodriguez. I asked Campbell about that on Wednesday and this is what he told me:
"I mean, he really does become somewhat the next man up. I mean, he and Jack (Campbell). It's really Jack and Malcolm. I mean, those are the two that are – they're going to take on the heaviest load of that whole room. And so, yeah, he knows that, but he's ready for it.
"Malcolm's a football player, man, and he embraces this, and some of this stuff – this week is right in his wheelhouse, this fits him perfect, and Jack too, for that matter. So, he'll be big for us and he's going to be big the rest of the season."
The Lions view Rodriguez as a starter, always have, and he's played a lot of reps for this football team over the last three years. Losing Anzalone is tough, but that's why depth is so key in this league. The Lions have a lot of faith Rodriguez will step in and fill the void nicely.
20man: You piqued my interest, so I went and looked. They have been flagged for one illegal formation penalty all season. That's it.
That speaks to the level of discipline and perfection Johnson requires from his player's pre-snap. When there's so much continuity on offense with the same coordinator and core players over a number of years, this is the result – few procedural penalties. Johnson hates pre-snap penalties more than I think he loves touchdown plays. He's a perfectionist and that bleeds down to his players.
20man: This week will be a good challenge. Colts wide receivers Alec Pierce, Michael Pittman Jr, Josh Downs and an emerging Adonai Mitchell are a good group. Quarterback Anthony Richardson can throw the ball a mile and he's probably his most accurate throwing the ball down the field.
Arnold has really improved his technique over the last month, limiting the holding and the grabbing. He's an aggressive corner, and he's going to get some penalties because of it, but he's playing some really good ball right now and Lions fans should be excited about his future.
20man: I talked about Smith above. He's getting more and more comfortable and is expected to play more snaps this week in Indy.
As for Martin, he was named the scout team player of the week last week. Glenn said the coaches saw some of the reps he had against Frank Ragnow last week and it was an easy decision for the coaches. That's obviously a great sign.
I got the sense from Glenn Thursday that they still want to see some more consistency in practice and get Martin more reps in practice before we see him in a game. Maybe I'm wrong, that just seemed like the vibe I got, but I think we'll see Martin sooner rather than later and the hope is he can join that rotation inside and make an impact.
