Lions OC Darrell Bevell confirms team plans to run the ball

While many NFL teams were scrambling to build a passing offense similar to what Sean McVay has done with the Los Angeles Rams, the Detroit Lions are going in a different direction.

New offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell confirmed while speaking with the media on Tuesday that they intend to run the ball.

“We’ll always be about running the football,” Bevell said Tuesday via the Detroit Free Press’ Dave Birkett. “We want to be a tough, hard-nosed, physical football team. We want to be able to exert our will on our opponents.”

Bevell believes that while NFL defenses stack their teams with smaller, quicker players to defend against speed offenses, they will struggle to adjust to the Lions’ intended physical approach.

Whether the strategy works remains to be seen. So much will come down to how well Detroit plays on defense. The more they’re able to shut down opponents, the better the rushing game plan will work. It also should help that they got Matthew Stafford some receiving weapons rather than trade them away like they did last year with Golden Tate.

This approach should mean big things for Kerryon Johnson and CJ Anderson.