The preseason matchup between the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions hold more storylines than either team would like. Both teams have position battles taking place while the Lions must answer doubt about their offense and the Jets begin to overcome the loss of Geno Smith. Preseason will be critical for both teams to improve before the season begins and it all begins on Thursday night.
The Ryan Fitzpatrick era officially begins in New York on Thursday. This is not what the Jets were hoping for when they traded for the former Texans quarterback. The intention was to have Fitzpatrick as the backup to Smith, but after the quarterback broke his jaw in a locker room fight, the veteran is the next man up. The Jets are hopeful that the transition from Smith to Fitzpatrick is smooth. The veteran did not get in a lot of preseason work due to a broken leg suffered last December. His time with the wide receiver group has been limited so far as the Jets immediately began working him in with the first-team offense following the injury.
The rest of the offense will be critical in picking up the pieces of Smith's injury. The Jets traded for Brandon Marshall in the offseason to pair with Eric Decker. Both players will be big pieces to Fitzpatrick's success this season. Devin Smith is out with an injury which means Jeremy Kerley will be the No.3 receiver with Marshall and Decker. There is still doubt in the run game as Stevan Ridley remains out with injury. Chris Ivory and Bilal Powell will battle for the starting spots alongside Zac Stacy. Bryce Petty will also see a fair amount of playing time in the first game. He is now QB2 for the Jets as he backs up Fitzpatrick New York has eyed free agent options, but will stick with just those two players for now.
The Detroit Lions are aiming for a bounce back year as they have high hopes on the season. Matthews Stafford stressed that this is the best the offense has looked at this point in the season. Eric Ebron is said to be improving while Ameer Abdullah comes in to challenge Joique Bell for the starting spot. Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate are back and healthy as the top two receivers. The biggest question for Detroit is whether or not they did enough to replace Ndamukong Suh in free agency.