Dan Campbell explains why Kalif Raymond is not in the Lions wide receiver 3 spot

Like the Detroit Lions, I was desperate to find a way to fix the team's receiving corps ahead of the season, so I cooked up a trade package that would send Kalif Raymond to Ravens . Obviously a good number of Lions weren't happy about that.

The big response that I got was that "Kalif Raymond is the team's WR3, why would they trade him?" My response has been that this is not the case. While Raymond is the third best receiver on this team, he's not in that WR3 slot on the depth chart and during the game and there's a reason for that. Part of it is because of the body size just doesn't fit what they're looking for, but the other part is something that I'll let Dan Campbell explain.

"He is receiver three right now I just, I think the idea has always been, we love Lif as a returner, and Lif brings leaf brings a different skill set to the receiver position. He's got a little gadgetry. He's got some quickness underneath, and he's a returner. And to maximize both, boy, you'd love to you know, he's 20 to 20 plays a game. 25 plays a game, and so we would rather not play him 65 plays a game, but we will if we have to. So yeah, he's receiver three right now, and that's fine, but that's why it would be nice to have somebody step up, because that just helps the room, and I think it makes everybody a little more potent, that's all. But yes, we trust leaf very much."

So that's it right there. Raymond is a good receiver, but he's not the receiver the team needs in that spot right now and it sounds like they're rather have his snaps spread out over multiple ideas. He can be the return man, he can play other spots on special teams and then come in for some receiver time and do a little running back type stuff too. He's a utility player.

The Lions need a guy that can play a certain role and play it all the time. Sounds like they have their eye out for that guy right now. When it comes to the idea of trading Raymond, the thought process was that you have a handful of guys that can come together to give you what Raymond can give you. So why not move Raymond to get the guy that you don't have to do the thing you need done?

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