The smile has rarely left Calvin Johnson's face since he broke Jerry Rice's NFL record for receiving yards in a single season against Atlanta on Dec. 22.
The slumping Detroit Lions are rallying around Calvin Johnson, hoping he breaks Jerry Rice's NFL record for yards receiving in a season.
Over their last three home games, the Detroit Lions have been good enough to be ahead of some of the NFL's better teams _ Green Bay, Houston and Indianapolis _ with less than 2 minutes to go.
Next year will be Chris Long's fifth season with the St. Louis Rams. The defensive end will be playing for his fourth coach in a seemingly endless cycle of futility.
The Detroit Lions have a host of issues at running back.
For two quarters last weekend, the Detroit Lions looked like the team that set so many standards for NFL futility.
"We're obviously going to have to put (Johnson) in different positions (on the field)," Linehan said. "There's going to be even more attention on him with our receiving depth the way it is. Guys have got to be good around him. But I think he'll still have a productive game the way he's locked in."
"Calvin has picked up a lot of slack," Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said. "We've played him at a lot of different positions and I don't think he gets credit for how versatile he is. He plays probably three or four positions. It's even real common for him to do that even within a drive."
