After serving a 2 game suspension and missing his entire rookie year with an Achilles tear, 2011 2nd round pick Mikel Leshoure is ready to finally make his regular season debut for the Lions. It’s known that he’ll get carries, but it’s unclear how many he’ll get and if he’ll start over Kevin Smith, who has rushed for 115 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries in 2 starts in Leshoure’s absence.
The Lions have only said that he will “certainly be involved heavily in the game plan and we’ll go from there,” which is about as vague as it gets, though some people in the know, such as ESPN.com’s Kevin Seifert and ESPN’s Chris Mortensen believe he’ll be heavily involved. It’s looking like a less than ideal situation in fantasy leagues so I wouldn’t start either until I had a better understanding of how the carries will be divided up, which should take at least a week. For what’s it’s worth, in the offseason, the plan was reportedly to use Leshoure like the Saints use Mark Ingram and Smith like the Saints use Pierre Thomas (with the currently injured Jahvid Best as Darren Sproles). That would make Leshoure the lead back and the goal line back.
It’s also unclear if Leshoure is healthy enough to add anything positive to their running game. Achilles injuries normally take more than a year to bounce back from and Leshoure didn’t look good in the preseason rushing for 44 yards on 20 carries. A player in a similar situation, 2011 2nd round pick Ryan Williams, has rushed for just 22 yards on 18 carries in 2 games and he looked better than Leshoure did in the preseason.
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