The Detroit Lions have one of the more underrated wide receiver rooms in football, with Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Tim Patrick and Kalif Raymond as their top four at the position.
Last year, Detroit finished as the second-best passing attack in the league, averaging 266.3 yards per game through the air. However, with offensive coordinator Ben Johnson leaving to become the head coach of the Chicago Bears, the Lions have to start preparing for their future to make sure they stay successful on the offensive side of the ball.
That may include planning for life after Williams, as the 24-year-old, who has caught 83 passes for 1,396 yards and 10 touchdowns in his career, is nearing the end of his rookie contract. He has this year and the option year in 2026, but beyond that, his future is up in the air.
While the 2025 NFL draft just happened a few weeks ago, analysts are already looking ahead to 2026, and Walter Cherepinsky of WalterFootball recently predicted that the Lions will use their first-round pick next year on Oklahoma wide receiver Deion Burks.
“The Lions could stand to add another weapon to a receiving corps with just two viable threats,” Cherepinsky wrote. “Deion Burks is small, but has terrific play-making ability.”
Burks played high school football at Belleville High School in Belleville, Michigan, before originally committing to Purdue during his senior season. He went on to appeared in 30 games for the Boilermakers over three years, catching 63 passes for 804 yards and seven touchdowns.
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Last year, Burks transferred to Oklahoma and caught 31 passes for 245 yards and three touchdowns in just five games, missing significant time with injuries.
At 5-foot-9 and after failing to play in even half of the Sooners games in 2024, Burks will have to show out in 2025 if he’s going to be a first-round pick in 2026. It would be interesting to see what Detroit’s offense would look like for a year with St. Brown, Williams and Burks in the starting lineup. That could rival the explosion we saw from them when Johnson was calling plays.
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