How the 2024 Lions offense measure up to preseason stat projections, did Jameson Williams beat his projection?

Last season we put out stat projections for players on the Lions’ offense. The big claim to fame for us was that we absolutely nailed Amon-Ra St. Brown’s projection. 

We predicted ahead of the season that St. Brown would have 115 receptions for 1,516 yards and 10 touchdowns. He wound up with 119 receptions, 1,516 yards and 10 touchdowns. 

With that not-so-subtle piece of bragging out of the way, let’s take a look at how we did with this year’s predictions. 

Passing

So close, but I’m not blaming anyone for anything. I had lofty expectations for Goff this year and he absolutely hit those expectations in terms of having a big year and being an MVP candidate. Ultimately he didn’t throw the ball as much as I thought he would, but he still got super close to the yards projections. He did surpass the touchdowns though. 

Receiving 

At the time of the projection I didn’t think Jameson Williams would have quite the year he would have and I didn’t expect Tim Patrick to be so good, so I thought the pass game would go strictly through St. Brown. He didn’t get the catches or the yards I predicted, but he got the touchdowns. 

Like Goff, there is no disappointment here. He still had a Pro Bowl, and potentially, All-Pro season in 2024. 

I expected Williams to have a good season, but I didn’t expect this. The thought process was that there would be a little bit of growing pains for him in his first full season in the offense. That did not happen. He went off and got his first 1,000-yard season. Imagine what he could have done without the two-game suspension.

Caught a little bit of flack for this prediction back in early September, but it just made to much sense. Any tight end that has had a rookie season like LaPorta did has historically had a sophomore slump. That’s what happened. 

At the end of the day, like I said in the predictions piece, a slump didn’t mean he wouldn’t still put up some decent numbers, He did that. 

Not going to lie, I’m pretty proud of myself for getting as close as I did to some of these numbers. Definitely knew Gibbs would be a big part of the pass game. Not that that was anything crazy to think. 

Rushing

Gibbs passed the prediction numbers and just kept going. What an unreal season for this guy. He wound up with 20 total touchdowns this season. That’s a franchise record. 

Sadly the Lions running back duo did not become the eighth duo to rush for 1,000 yards each, but things were trending that way before the MCL injury. Montgomery could have made it happen. Maybe next year. 

I really thought we would see more Vaki in the run game this year. Looks like they’re saving him for next season.