TE Brandon Pettigrew took off down the middle of the field, cut slightly to his left and turned back toward his quarterback some 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. One defender hung on his back, another was sprinting toward his front.
Matthew Stafford still managed to squeeze a tight spiral in between the defenders, hitting Pettigrew's outstretched hands.
"It was man-on-man, (Stafford) checked, and we made a play," Pettigrew said.
It was the kind of completion the Lions envisioned when they drafted the tight end in the first round (20th overall) last year, and the kind of play they saw before Pettigrew tore up his knee during the Thanksgiving game.
He's only rated 28th among TEs at 4for4 and has an ADP of round 18. We've said it all spring and summer, TE is a deep position this year. Pettigrew certainly has the potential to out-rank his preseason projections, but the Lions also have Tony Scheffler, who is rated around 20 but doesn't have an ADP.