Detroit Lions Need To Use Brandon Pettigrew A Whole Lot More

It looks like neither Matthew Stafford nor Calvin Johnson are going to play this weekend. 

Dante Culpepper took all of the first team snaps in practice yesterday and Calvin Johnson hardly practiced at all this week.

I think it's high time that Brandon Pettigrew gets more involved in the offense.  He's made some incredible catches and has a nice 12.2 yards per catch average.

He can catch the ball in traffic, evident of the catch he made against the Bears where he got popped pretty good from behind, but the ball never left his hands.

Pettigrew only has 13 catches on the year.  His best game so far was against the Bears Oct 4th when he had four catches for 67 yards.  He has yet to score a touchdown.

Considering the Lions need to score touchdowns in the red zone, I am curious as to why Pettigrew's number hasn't been called.  While I know he's been a great help to the offensive line with his blocking, he isn't getting paid to just block.

Granted, he's had some drops, but in the grand scheme of things, a receiver just isn't going to catch every ball thrown to him.  However, a good receiver, as Pettigrew is, feels that any ball that touches his hands should have been a reception.  I'm pretty confident that Pettigrew will improve as he gets more and more comfortable with Linehan's offense.

Against the Packers 3-4 defense, Pettigrew is going to be the perfect weapon to counter it.  As Michael Schottey points out in his great slide show Detroit Lions Offensive Playbook: Keys to Leading the Pack , they need to get him out on a tight-end post and hit that seam against the safeties.  This will loosen up the running game as the linebackers will need to drop back to worry about Pettigrew.  Should also shake the double-coverage wide receivers Bryant Johnson and Dennis Northcutt.

Lions have a hidden jewel in Pettigrew.  There is a reason why they drafted him No. 20.  He has the capabilities to become a very dangerous receiver and great safety valve in the same vein as Chris Cooley, Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, and Jason Witten to name a few. 

The upcoming game against the Packers could be his coming out party.