Entering this offseason, the future looked bright for Joseph Fauria in Detroit.
The 6-foot-7 tight end expected to get plenty of opportunities in the Lions' new offense under offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi.
Then the Lions re-signed Brandon Pettigrew and made dynamic pass-catching tight end Eric Ebron the No. 10 overall pick in May's draft. On the face of it, those moves would seem to leave Fauria scrapping for playing time.
However, the second-year player believes there will be plenty of room on the field for all three tight ends.
"We're all going to complement each other," Fauria said, per MLive.com. "There's a bunch of pieces to the pie. Maybe one week one guy will have a big game with a lot of catches, and the next weekend, it will be a different guy. It's an interesting situation in this offense and it will be awesome to see how it plays out."
Pettigrew is expected to play a bigger blocking role than either Ebron or Fauria -- both of whom spent more time working with receivers than O-linemen early in camp.
Lombardi would like to use multiple tight end sets so there still could be a role for Fauria. The question is whether that role will be bigger than merely being a tall red zone threat for Matthew Stafford.
At this point, it could take some faltering from the other tight ends for Fauria to play more. He improved his blocking down the stretch last season, but is still viewed as average in the run game. He also doesn't have Ebron's dynamic athleticism. However, if the rookie struggles to catch up to the offense, Fauria could siphon off some of those snaps.
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