Joique Bell is so confident about this season, in fact, that he’s predicting he’ll become the second Detroit Lions running back to eclipse 1,000 rushing yards since 2004 — and then some.
“I’m going to rush for over 1,200 yards,” Bell told Kyle Meinke of MLive.com. “That’s the minimum. If I do less than that, I’ll be surprised. I’ll be disappointed.
“Anything more than that, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”
“My first year here I rushed for a few hundred (yards),” he said. “Second year, close to (700). Then last year, almost 900. So this next year, I’m just going to jump the gun and say 1,200. That’s the minimum.”
No Lions tailback has rushed for that many yards since Barry Sanders racked up 1,491 in his final season in 1998. In fact, the club’s tailbacks have struggled to reach even 1,000 in the post-Sanders era.
Detroit was the only team in the league without any 1,000-yard rushers from 2005-12.