A rookie is starting to creep up on a long-time Lions job during training camp, and Dan Campbell is about to give him more opportunities

Despite some of the myths you might have heard, I'm usually the first to admit when I'm wrong about a player, and I was wrong about the Detroit Lions seventh-round pick, Dominic Lovett. 

It's not that I thought he might be a bad player; it's that I thought he wouldn't be ready to go early, and I just didn't see what his value could be to the roster right now. Then I started seeing him on the field at training camp. 

The thing that you notice right away is his speed. This guy flies in the gunner reps he gets and in the gunner drills. Nobody assigned to stop him has been able to. He just runs right past guys. On offense, he's working with the second and third teams, but you see a guy who can go out there and get open and make some nice catches.

 He's catching the eyes of the Lions coaching staff, and they're ready to add more to his plate. 

"Fipp (Lions special teams coach Dave Fipp) and I are pretty excited. He shows up out there on the perimeter. Some of his gunner work has popped." Lions head coach Dan Campbell said. "And he's somebody we might see if we can get some return reps as well, punt return, slash, kickoff return. So there's something in there." 

Lovett is well on his way to being a guy who can be a special-teams ace gunner and return man who can also contribute here and there on offense. Who does that remind you of? Kalif Raymond, right?

Raymond has been a great return man for the Lions, but there's no secret that he's been used less and less everywhere else in the last couple of seasons. He's behind Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Tim Patrick, and Isaac TeSlaa right now. When you get down into those final receiver spots, you have to be able to bring as much as you can on special teams. 

So if Lovett goes out there and wows as a return man and you add that to his ability to be a good gunner and come in on offense a little here and there, that means he brings more to the table than Raymond does. Then the Lions kind of have to decide if they want to carry five receivers or six. 

I'm not saying Raymond is a goner right now. I'm not going to plant my flag into that idea just yet. Lovett has to prove it in the return game, and he still has a month left of camp to prove it everywhere else. But it should be noted that Raymond is going into the last year of his contract and will be 31 years old this season. The end is near, even if it isn't right now.