Marvin Jones

Marvin Jones showed some big-play prowess in his first season in Detroit last year, but he’s hoping the improvements he’s made as a route-runner, and the focus he’s put on strengthening his lower body, will allow him to be more consistently explosive throughout the entire season.

Jones caught 36 passes for 651 yards and four touchdowns, including his first career 200-yard receiving performance, during the first half of last season.

Once teams started to pay a little more attention to Jones because of his hot start, he caught just 19 passes for 274 yards without any touchdowns in the seven games he played the second half of the season. He missed Detroit’s Week 13 contest in New Orleans with a thigh injury.

“I think Marvin started out the season extremely well,” Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said during OTAs. “He’s been doing even better this spring.

“He’s had one of those springs that you kind of look to. This guy is right there on the verge of maintaining that kind of explosive start that he had last year. He’s really, really had a real good spring.”

Jones started the season at a blistering pace, catching 27 passes (on 41 targets) for 519 yards and three touchdowns in the first five games. Over the remainder of the season (10 games), he averaged 2.8 catches for 41 yards and 0.10 touchdowns. The departure of Anquan Boldin should help, but the Lions drafted Kenny Golladay and are hoping for a healthy season from TE Eric Ebron.