Former Titan Doing His Best for NFL's Worst Team

Kalif Raymond did not exactly move on to greener pastures. However, the former Tennessee Titans wide receiver/returner has arrived at his moment in the sun, professionally speaking.

Playing for the winless Detroit Lions, Raymond already has set career-highs with 26 receptions, 334 receiving yards and two touchdown catches – all tops among that team’s wide receivers. He set a single-game best with six receptions in Week 3 against the Chicago Bears and has matched that in each of the last two weeks. Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, he had 115 receiving yards, three short of his best day in that regard.

By comparison, the Titans’ leading receiver, A.J. Brown, has 25 catches for 354 yards and two touchdowns.

"Kalif's a perfect example of the guys in that locker room that fight," Lions quarterback Jared Goff said Sunday after a loss to the Los Angeles Rams. "He fights. He's where he needs to be. He's on time. He's reliable and he's going to get the ball because of that.

“… I love getting him the ball as much as I can, and I’m starting to build a good rapport with him.”

Raymond already has been targeted 39 times in the passing game. In 35 career games before this season the ball was thrown his way 30 times. His 66.7 percent catch rate is better than his career rate.

In two seasons with the Titans (2019-20), he was primarily a return man who occasionally served as a deep threat on offense. He caught nine passes for 170 yards in 2019 and nine more four 187 the next season. Four of those 18 receptions went for 40 yards or more.

“I talk to (Goff) all the time,” Raymond said. “There’s times in practice when he’s feeling something and I’ll be thinking something, and his mind is just right there. He’s pretty spot-on with just making adjustments and stuff like that.

“It’s pretty cool to have that. It’s still growing. I think as the games keep going, just keep trusting each other. Honestly, him trusting me is huge.”

Raymond was scheduled to be a restricted free agent in the offseason, but the Titans opted not to extend the qualifying offer necessary to retain his rights. That made him an unrestricted free agent and available to any other team. Detroit signed him early in the new league year.

With Tennessee, he was a part of one division champion and two postseason teams.

In that way, the difference in playing for Detroit is even more pronounced. The Lions are 0-7, the NFL’s only winless team, and four of the defeats have been by 10 points or more.

“At the end of the day, we’re professionals, no matter what happens each week,” Raymond said. “Obviously, we want the win, but to be a professional we come back the next week and do it again, no matter the outcome. Again and again. Every day. Every practice. That’s part of it. I don’t think our record is reflective of the work we’re putting in.”