Wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones‘ midseason tryout for his hometown team was enough of a success that the Lions have opted to bring him in on a new one-year deal. According to Jordan Schultz of Bleacher Report, the former 5-star recruit out of Detroit’s Cass Tech HS is re-signing with the team on a deal that could be worth up to $2MM. 
Peoples-Jones’ career took an unexpected dive in 2023. After being drafted in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL Draft out of Michigan, Peoples-Jones gradually earned more and more of a role with the Browns. As a rookie, he started two games, catching 14 passes for 304 yards and two touchdowns. In his sophomore season, he upped those numbers to nine starts, 34 receptions, 597 yards, and three touchdowns. By 2022, he was setting new highs with 14 starts and 61 catches for 839 receiving yards and three touchdowns, functioning as Cleveland’s WR2 behind Amari Cooper.
2023 brought a confusing change of pace. The Browns had traded for Elijah Moore and drafted Tennessee rookie Cedric Tillman in the third round, and all of the sudden, Peoples-Jones’ contributions dwindled. Through seven weeks with the team, five of them starts and six of them games in which he played at least 80 percent of the team’s offensive snaps, Peoples-Jones had only accumulated eight catches for 97 yards.
The lack of production led Cleveland to trade Peoples-Jones to the Lions in exchange for a 2025 sixth-round pick. Detroit opted to ease Peoples-Jones into the offense, relying on their corps of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Josh Reynolds, Kalif Raymond, and Jameson Williams. Up until the final game of the regular season, Peoples-Jones never appeared in more than 21 percent of the team’s offensive snaps, and he hardly saw the field in three playoff games.
Now, with a full offseason in Detroit between now and his next in-game appearance, the Lions are showing a renewed dedication to Peoples-Jones. Schutlz reports that Peoples-Jones was a priority for the franchise, who believe that the 25-year-old is still a rising star in the league despite his struggles last season.
With Reynolds currently sitting on the free agent market, the WR2 job appears to be an open competition. Peoples-Jones will have the opportunity to duke it out with Raymond and Williams to earn Reynolds’ targets in 2024.
I liked DPJ in Cleveland. He never seemed to be targeted very much, and I couldn’t understand why, because he did make some big plays. Maybe he doesn’t run routes well enough to be consistent. I hope he gets an opportunity with Detroit and flourishes. Good luck, DPJ.
Knock on DPJ even going back to his UofM days was that he’s poor at the technical aspect of the position, things like leverage, read-recognition, etc, and extremely reliant on his physical gifts.
Problem is that every guy that who gets drafted to the NFL is physically gifted, enough so they could dominate their amateur peers in HS and College, but it takes dedication to a craft to really turn into something special once in NFL.
I don’t know whether DPJ lacks the drive…I actually think he has a pretty good rep as a hard worker…but it’s probably that people learn & progress at different rates, and he might just not be capable of learning the tools and applying them once the ball is snapped
But for a fraction above the $Vets Minimum, it’s a worthy re-sign to nab a guy already exposed to the playbook and might be one of the most explosive team #5 options in the league