| The Detroit News
Detroit — It took them long enough, but the Lions finally acknowledged what you already knew. And what they already knew, too: D’Andre Swift is Detroit’s No. 1 running back.
He’s probably their most valuable offensive weapon as well, especially with Kenny Golladay sidelined by an injury again. And Sunday, with the Lions’ season on the line —and plenty more, we assume — they actually treated the rookie as such, giving Swift his first career start and then following his fleet-footed lead to a nerve-racking win over Washington at Ford Field.
Swift finished Sunday’s game with a career-best 149 scrimmage yards on 21 touches, a 15-yard touchdown reception, and a handful of crucial plays in the fourth quarter after the Lions found a way to cough up a 24-3 lead late in the game.
“When he had opportunities to make plays today, he made some great ones,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “Some huge runs there in the second half, a big catch for a touchdown as well. I was really happy with the way he played. I know he had a bunch of fun out there, running around and making plays.”
Well, that’s why they invested all that draft capital in him, isn’t it? Facing a make-or-break 2020 season, Lions general manager Bob Quinn certainly didn’t use the 35th overall pick on a running back just to watch him stand on the sidelines while a 35-year-old veteran free agent — even one with first-ballot Hall of Fame credentials — shouldered the backfield load this fall.
Ready for the moment
But that’s what was happening for much of the first two months of the regular season, though we never heard the rookie complaining about it.
“I was just making sure I was ready,” said Swift, whose offensive outburst was the biggest statistically for a Lions rookie since Jahvid Best’s 232-yard day in 2010. “Making sure whenever my number was called, I was ready to go out there and produce. … I mean, I know what I’m capable of. I just put my faith in God, and knew my time was gonna come sometime.”
Swift did miss extended time in training camp with a nagging hip injury. And after a virtual offseason without on-field work, that clearly set the rookie back in his learning curve, though he’d entered the draft well-prepared playing in a pro-style offense at Georgia.
Still, the growing pains were inevitable, even before that season opener, when Swift saw a would-be catch slip through his fingers in the end zone in the waning seconds of a loss to the Bears.
“My first NFL game, I dropped the winning touchdown,” he recalled Sunday. “It’s just making sure when I’m out there and I’m in there in those type of situations, when my number’s called to catch the ball, that I do that.”
But given the diminishing returns from Adrian Peterson over the last couple months, and the flashes of game-breaking potential we saw from Swift along the way — including a breakout performance in Jacksonville last month — it was inexplicable it took this long to see this much of the rookie.
It wasn’t until that Week 6 win over the Jaguars that Swift played more than 40% of the Lions’ offensive snaps, as he had in that home opener. And it wasn’t until last week in a loss at Minnesota that he actually got the lion’s share of the carries over Peterson and Kerryon Johnson.
This week, Swift says he got the word from the coaching staff on Wednesday or Thursday that he’d be getting his first start against Washington. He kept it to himself, not even sharing the news with his family and friends.
“Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “When I went out there, I wanted them to just see.”
‘A crazy playmaker’
And what we saw — starting with the Lions’ first possession to take a 7-0 lead — was exactly what the Lions needed from their dynamic rookie. Swift racked up 32 yards on his first three carries, including a 16-yard gain up the middle that ended with him hurdling over the tackle attempt of Washington safety Deshazor Everett.
“The dude is a crazy playmaker,” said receiver Marvin Jones, who also had a big day with eight catches for 96 yards and a touchdown. “We‘ve known that ever since he’s been here and touched the ground. When the ball is in his hands, even with somebody like me, I gotta keep blocking. Because I know he’s going to come out of it by making a move, or running somebody over, or jumping over somebody.”
Indeed, it was the power the 5-foot-9, 215-pound back displayed in running between the tackles, picking up extra yards on some important carries, that impressed head coach Matt Patricia as much as anything Sunday.
“I thought he ran really hard,” Patricia said. “That was a great thing for us to see.”
Even better, though, was seeing the Lions utilize his unique skill set Sunday, particularly on his scoring play midway through the third quarter.
On third-and-6 from the Washington 15, Stafford motioned Swift out of the backfield to the right side of a bunch formation. (“The play call was amazing, the situation was great,” Swift said.) And from there, Swift ran a nifty little pivot route, spinning away from an overmatched linebacker in Jon Bostic to make the grab and then barreling over cornerback Jimmy Moreland to get into the end zone.
Asked to explain Sunday’s performance, Swift was quick to credit the Lions’ offensive line and Stafford, as well as Darrell Bevell’s game plan. But mostly he chalked it up to faith, patience, and a half-season’s worth of experience.
“As I started playing more, I’m getting more comfortable, having more fun out there,” he said. “And I understand the offense more, which allows me to play faster.”
As for what it’ll do for him going forward, Swift’s knows how important this was, showing what he could do.
“Yeah, I think I needed this,” he said.
His team did, too. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JohnNiyo