The Lions haven’t made any decisions about wide receiver Titus Young’s future with the team, but one of his teammates thinks that he knows what Young needs to do in order to succeed in Detroit.
To fellow wideout Nate Burleson, it is as simple as knowing your role. Burleson isn’t sure whether or not Young and the team can build a bridge back to a working relationship, but he believes that Young will have to do a better job of accepting that he isn’t the lead dog on the Lions offense. It’s Calvin Johnson’s show and Young was advised to look at another second banana to see a way that things can work out for everybody.
“He is extremely competitive, which is good,” Burleson said, via Justin Rogers of MLive.com. “He comes in and he wants to be the man, he wants to shine. He feels like he can help the team any given play. He’s an I’m-always-open guy and I like that about his personality. It’s just when you’re playing with (Johnson), you have to adjust. You never heard (Scottie) Pippen saying, ‘Let me lead the team in scoring.’ It’s (Michael) Jordan’s show.”
That seems like a big stretch for a player who was a lot closer to Dennis Rodman behavior-wise last season. Young was essentially thrown off the team this season for intentionally sabotaging the offense to protest the size of his role in it. A big stretch is going to be what Young needs to do to remain in Detroit, though, and, unless he goes to a team without a top receiver, what he’ll have to do to thrive anywhere in the NFL.