Detroit Lions: How Bad Does Losing Rookie Mikel Leshoure Hurt Them?

This year is looking to be a great one for the Detroit Lions.

They've drafted well the past few years and it's starting to finally come together (as long as the injury bug doesn't haunt them).

The bug has already claimed its first victim in rookie running back Mikel Leshoure. Leshoure, a second-round draft pick from Illinois, has reportedly torn his Achilles tendon and is out for the rest of the 2011-2012 season.

Although he was probably slated to be the backup to Jahvid Best, Best hasn't been known as a solid, injury-free guy. Accordingly, I would have projected him to get 5-15 touches a game as a red zone back and on third-and-short situations.

Now his season and perception to the Lions has been damaged, along with his Achilles.

The greater picture in this is how badly affected are the lions by this, and the answer is, very little.Despite signs saying what we saw at Illinois is what we'll see in Detroit, it wasn't going to happen next year. What we'll see from the Lions is what we've seen from the Jets and Shonn Greene; keeping him as an understudy for a few years before gradually making him the starter.

Leshoure is a powerful back with the explosiveness to do what we saw against Northwestern at  Wrigley, and very capable of doing so in the NFL, but we'll have to wait until 2012-2013 to see the final results.

I think he'll explode as a top five back in the next 3-4 years, but this year he wasn't going to be much of an asset with Best taking the majority of the carries.

Though the Lions hope Leshoure makes a full recovery, they won't miss much of the rookie running back this season.