{"id":851274,"date":"2026-04-03T13:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851274\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:52:22","slug":"constructing-an-opening-day-lineup-out-of-the-detroit-lions-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851274\/","title":{"rendered":"Constructing an Opening Day lineup out of the Detroit Lions’ roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Tigers game in 2024, but we\u2019re going to trust him to handle the Keystone. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Detroit \u2014 After something of an exhaustive week of Detroit Lions news, let\u2019s sit back and collectively enjoy Opening Day in Detroit as the Tigers host the St. Louis Cardinals at Comerica Park on Friday afternoon. <\/p>\n

Now, we\u2019re not about to pivot on our primary coverage topic here at DFN. If you\u2019re looking for more in-depth Tigers reporting and analysis, my former Detroit News Colleague Lynn Henning recently launched the Tigers Intelligence Report<\/a> for your fix. <\/p>\n

But let\u2019s have a little fun marrying my expertise with this unofficial sports holiday, generating an Opening Day lineup from the Detroit Lions roster. We\u2019ll be back to your regularly scheduled pre-draft programming next week. <\/p>\n

C – Hogan Hatten<\/p>\n

1B – Alim McNeill<\/p>\n

2B – Amon-Ra St. Brown<\/p>\n

SS – Jahmyr Gibbs<\/p>\n

3B – Jack Fox<\/p>\n

LF – Jacob Saylors<\/p>\n

CF – Kerby Joseph<\/p>\n

RF – Jack Campbell<\/p>\n

SP – Jared Goff<\/p>\n

Thoughts: Hatten was a high school first baseman and pitcher, but we\u2019re putting him behind the dish and trusting him to call the game, with the arm strength to throw out aggressive base runners.<\/p>\n

McNeill \u2014 with the most impressive baseball background on Detroit\u2019s roster \u2014 probably wasn\u2019t 300-plus pounds when roving the outfield at Sanderson High School in Raleigh, N.C. However, he still has the short-area athleticism to handle first base.<\/p>\n

St. Brown doesn\u2019t have a baseball background, but his movement skills, fearlessness and the ability to vacuum up most anything in his vicinity should translate well to the infield. Plus, with his work ethic, he\u2019ll figure out how to consistently make the throw to first. It\u2019s nothing 202 reps a day couldn\u2019t solve in a week or two.<\/p>\n

Gibbs also doesn\u2019t have a baseball background, but give me my best athlete at short.<\/p>\n

Fox did play baseball growing up and we know the former high school quarterback has a cannon, making him a great fit for those long throws across the diamond.<\/p>\n

And in the outfield, give me a couple guys with baseball backgrounds and good athleticism in the corners and a defensive stalwart with range and anticipation patrolling center.<\/p>\n

Goff, the son of former MLB player Jerry Goff, maybe isn\u2019t a power pitcher who will rack up big strikeout totals with a four-seamer sitting in the low 90\u2019s, but he can paint the corners like Greg Maddux, keeping the contact soft and the ball on the ground.<\/p>\n

Jahmyr Gibbs<\/p>\n

Jared Goff<\/p>\n

Jack Fox<\/p>\n

Alim McNeill<\/p>\n

Jack Campbell<\/p>\n

Jacob Saylors<\/p>\n

Hogan Hatten<\/p>\n

Amon-Ra St. Brown<\/p>\n

Kerby Joseph<\/p>\n

Thoughts: Gibbs has an ideal combination of speed and power to hit at the top of the order. His smaller strike zone should help him get on base, where he can be a problem on the paths.<\/p>\n

Goff strikes us as a guy who has a high contact rate and good things happen when you put the ball in play.<\/p>\n

Fox will set the table for McNeill, the traditional cleanup hitter with big power. Meanwhile, Campbell is probably going to strike out more than you\u2019d like, but you\u2019re going to love the exit velocity when he catches one on the sweet spot.<\/p>\n

Saylors and Hatten will give you solid bat-to-ball skills at the bottom of the order and you\u2019ll take what you can get from St. Brown and Joseph, who are going to be more valued for the runs saved on defense.<\/p>\n

And, if need be, we\u2019ll have Jameson Williams ready to come off the bench as a late-inning pinch runner. He can be our Herb Washington, a track star signed by the Athletics in the 70\u2019s, who stole 29 bases one season without ever logging an at bat. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Tigers game in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,2506,7,147,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-851274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroitlions","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-lions","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116341111265755268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}