Are Lions Making Costly Mistake Not Playing Williams and Swift Together?

Should Detroit Lions play Jamaal Williams and D'Andre Swift together with more frequency?

The Detroit Lions are in search of any solutions to their woes on offense. 

Mistakes, poor tempo, missed assignments, turnovers and penalties are just some of the reasons Detroit's offense has struggled the past few weeks. 

Head coach Dan Campbell explained the impact of not playing with the optimal tempo with reporters on Monday.

“It’s important because when we’re not in tempo as of two weeks now, we’ve not done well, we really haven’t," Campbell said. "We stalled out. In Minnesota, we started the game well. Now, we turned the ball over, but we didn’t move it, and then, at the end of the game, we moved it. Other than that, we just haven’t done much, unless we’re in the two-minute mode and we’re kind of flowing."

It was noted by The Athletic that analytics have indicated the Lions' offense is more effective when running back Jamaal Williams is on the field and more explosive when Williams and D'Andre Swift are playing together. 

While the sample size is small when the duo has played together, Detroit's offense should likely consider experimenting with several different sets, instead of simply playing one or the other.

"I think we just need to be prepared to change it up a little bit," Campbell said. "There again, if we need to get out of the world of true called plays and they’re one word, we’re in a one-word system for what we do, and we’re up to the ball and we’re functioning that way, then, we’ll do that. I think we just -- whether we’re calling what we call and change the tempo, I think we need to start really experimenting with things like that.” 

Small sample size on the Swift/Williams pairings: 21 snaps, 11 passing attempts. But Goff's average depth of target is by far the lowest on those snaps (3.7 compared to 6.7 overall), yet they've produced the highest yards per attempt.

— Chris Burke (@ChrisBurkeNFL) October 19, 2021