Lions notes: What everyone is saying about the Anquan Boldin signing
Anquan Boldin may be the final piece to the Lions’ wide receiver puzzle
The Lions had Lance Moore and still have TJ Jones who had slot looks last season. Some of the beat writers are talking about a balance between giving Jones an opportunity to further develop this season, that could be stagnated if they do play Boldin a significant amount of snaps.
Boldin ran most of his routes from the slot last season and that is the most likely role for him this season with the Lions as well. I have read some caution against using Boldin as a blocker too frequently because of his age, but I don't know. He can play outside as well and having a mobile blocking option like him can really help out on bubble screens and some of the things they like to do with Riddick, who is kind of competing for slots looks too.
Last season Lance Moore in a similar role had 577 offensive snaps, which is pretty significant. The Lions use a lot of 11 personnel like most teams around the NFL.
TJ Jones had 159 offensive snaps last season, that is a number that maybe should increase.
I think this is where the main competition for player time will happen. This is 736 offensive snaps to 3rd WR. It could potentially be more than this if they like how both Boldin and Jones are playing.
If they do have 3 WR on the field for 800 snaps I think Boldin will have 500 of them, with Jones having 300 (about double what he had last season). If Boldin is playing at a high level perhaps that split is more 600 to 200 or maybe they don't use either of these guys quite as much.
Boldin had 757 offensive snaps in 14 games last season. This is 54os/game on pace for 865 offensive snaps last season.
I don't see Boldin getting that much opportunity with the Lions who have a lot more options than the 49ers had last season. The Lions do run more offensive plays than the 49ers did (about 60 plays more in 2015) and the Lions have run more plays in previous years than they did last season, so I think there is some upside there. At the same time JBC seemed to use the run more than Lombardi and they won a lot more games with his approach, so the passing volume may go down somewhat if he maintains this balance for most of the year.
While Boldin is still capable he is going to be 36 years old in October. History shows that WR see a greater frequency of decline in their age 35-36 seasons. Most do not get to play beyond this age.
Boldin is not going to see the high market share of targets he has enjoyed recently because there are too many other weapons to compete with for looks. He also isn't likely to see nearly as many offensive snaps as he has in the past. These two factors lead to me to think Boldin will only have about 60 targets over the season, which is about half the pace he has had the previous 3 seasons (around 130 targets).
Lance Moore had 43 targets over 16 games last season.