5 NFL players who will fall off a cliff in the 2020 season
By Dustin Baker
5. Danny Amendola, WR, Detroit Lions
This is not an indictment of Danny Amendola’s past, current team, or quarterback. Amendola has won two Super Bowls (2014, 2016) and his addition to this list hardly takes that away from him.
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Amendola is just currently squished on a depth chart stuffed full of young, hungry wide receivers. As it stands, he will battle Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones, Geronimo Allisom and rookie Quintez Cephus for the third wide receiver spot on the Detroit Lions depth chart.
There is no earthly pathway for Amendola to dethrone Golladay or Jones for their respective one and two spots on merit, so that leaves him in a tussle with Allison and Cephus.
The soon-to-be 35-year-old does have some attributes that give him a puncher’s chance to land the third wideout position on the depth chart. He is renowned for outstanding hands, and he has come up big in clutch moments throughout his 11-year career. Amendola is not a fledgling old pass-catcher.
He is, though, well into his mid-30s and only a select few wideouts remain viable pass-catchers beyond this point. Matthew Stafford will look to hurl the ball over the field per usual, but Amendola’s prospects of being the bonafide third-guy have dwindled with the emergence of younger men on the Lions depth chart.