ALLEN PARK -- He’s the one who looks hidden, stuffed in those baggy gray sweats with the tight-fitting jersey as he runs drills beneath the sun. Behind Kerryon Johnson, behind Theo Riddick, behind Zach Zenner, all suddenly staples in the Lions offense, the hefty back zips around bags and beneath poles with a swiftness that makes you question who it is under all the layers.
C.J. Anderson is used to flying under the radar. It’s happened even as he’s accomplished things in the NFL. He made the Pro Bowl in his second season and won a Super Bowl in his third. He was a 1,000-yard back in his fifth, still just 26 years old. And then he was bouncing around the league wondering if anyone truly wanted him anymore.
Players naturally take winding paths to the Lions, a team in schematic and cultural transition in a league that doesn’t let much sit idle for very long. More than 90 players are taking to the practice fields behind the Allen Park facility knowing around half can make it and the rest will be sent elsewhere. But Detroit’s newest veteran running back had a 2018 season that was hard to ever see coming.
He was cut by the Broncos, that team he accomplished so much with. Then he was cut by the Raiders, who already had Marshawn Lynch. He lasted seven games and 24 carries with the Panthers before he was cut again. He turned down opportunities to run with the Lions and other teams because he didn’t want to be just a guy, wasn’t used to being just a guy. And when the weird year seemed just about over, that’s when the Rams were on the phone.
Todd Gurley was hurt, and they needed a proven back to keep their Super Bowl run on course. So in came an admittedly out-of-shape Anderson and off he ran for seven yards a carry in two regular-season games and 4.1 yards a tote in three postseason games to become a bit of a cult hero in the Rams’ run to the Super Bowl.
That was all on Gurley’s team, which was humbling and reinforcing. Anderson wants to play, but he also wants to fit in on a team that wants to be about what he’s all about. And that’s when he signed with the Lions.
“I just think that meshes well when you start adding Darrell Bevell and what he’s done in the past in Minnesota and Seattle with AP and Marshawn Lynch, Thomas Rawls, you can name back after back," Anderson said. "It was a perfect fit.”
Anderson can remember all the details that brought him here. In one conversation, he rattled off the number of times he’s played in a scheme like this (four, including once with Jeff Davidson as his offensive line coach), the number of games he’s played against Patricia defenses (nine) and the veterans who molded him the way he wants to do now for Johnson and younger backs.
Veterans often say those lines this time of year, but Anderson lived it in Carolina last year, when he helped prepare Christian McCaffrey for a Year 2 breakout few saw coming. McCaffrey racked up 326 touches for just shy of 2,000 yards.
It’s not easy to prepare a younger player to take the reigns to a level where you aren’t as needed, but that time kept him on enough radars to later wind up on the Rams and then in the Super Bowl, so he isn’t one to judge.
“I’ve done everything that a complete back would want to do. I’ve had some times where I’ve put it together for 16 games and you get rewarded with Pro Bowls and things of that nature, and I’ve done it at that level, too. It’s just finding the right opportunity, get another 16 again, put a full 16 together and hopefully find a home.”
At 5 feet 8 inches and 228 pounds, the 29-year-old recognizes his special teams days are likely done. He didn’t sign with the Lions last fall because he feared he’d be just a practice player again, and he felt he had it in him to do what he later did on the Rams.
So his signing here signals a shift, in the needs of the team and also its commitment to using a number of backs. He wants to elevate a group and have the group elevate him, the way it finally worked out last season.
“You want to go where you’re wanted," Anderson said. "I was really wanted here.”