Greg Dortch Does Not Want to Be Your Gadget Guy
Greg Dortch signed with the Lions this offseason and everyone immediately decided what he was going to be. Kalif Raymond 2.0. The return man. The jet sweep guy. The four-touch-per-game specialist who shows up on third-and-short and disappears otherwise.
Dortch is not having it.
When asked about the Raymond comparisons after Wednesday’s practice, Dortch made his position crystal clear. “I look at myself as a dynamic returner. I have over 10 receiving touchdowns, over 1,000 yards receiving. So I mean, I can play receiver too. So the whole gadget thing is not something that I really like to put over my name. I’m a football player.”
That is not a polite deflection. That is a guy telling you to stop boxing him in before he even gets a chance to show what he can do.
Why He Came to Detroit
The Drew Petzing reunion helped. Dortch spent three years with Petzing in Arizona, and familiarity matters when you are trying to carve out a role on a new team. But that is not the whole story.
Dortch told reporters he played the Lions a few years back and Detroit beat the hell out of the Cardinals. He loved the way they went about it. When the call came that the Lions were interested, saying yes was easy.
That kind of thing matters. This is not a guy chasing a paycheck or settling for a depth role. He wanted to be here because he saw what Dan Campbell is building and wanted in.
The Film Says More Than the Label
If you watch Dortch in Arizona, you can see why people default to the gadget comparison. Petzing moved him all over the formation. Slot, outside, motion, jet sweeps, screens, returns. He is one of those guys who can turn five yards into 25 in a hurry.
But here is what the label misses. He finished his time in Arizona with over 1,000 receiving yards and double-digit receiving touchdowns. That is not a gadget receiver. That is a legitimate receiver who happens to bring versatility on top of it.
Now, let’s be honest. He has Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, and Isaac TeSlaa ahead of him in the target pecking order. All three of those guys are going to eat before Dortch does. But that does not mean he is getting four touches a game and calling it a day.
The Lions did not sign him to be a situational piece. They signed him because they can do anything with him, and that is a different kind of value.
What Training Camp Already Showed
On day one of training camp, Dortch was not relegated to second-team reps or a handful of gadget snaps. He was out there with the first team. He got his touches. When the pads go on, expect to see a lot more.
This is not Kalif Raymond’s role. Raymond was a damn good return man and a solid depth piece, but once Jameson Williams arrived, his offensive touches dried up. Dortch is not going to let that happen to him, and based on what we saw in Allen Park, the Lions do not want it to either.
Keep an eye on number eight. He is going to be a bigger part of this offense than anyone realizes, and he is going to make sure you know it.
Do you think Dortch is going to carve out real offensive reps or are we all just hyping up a return specialist? Drop your take below.
