Player
Kalif Raymond
WR · Lions
Undrafted WRs almost never make it to a 10th season. The 2016 class produced exactly two undrafted WRs still on an NFL roster nine years later — Raymond and Robbie Chosen — and only Raymond is on the active list. Surviving alongside R1-R5 draftees is the actual story; the longevity isn't typical, it's a survivor stat.
Undrafted 2016 — one of just 2 undrafted WRs from his class still on an active 2025 roster.
Trend2016-entry WRs still rostered in 2025
| Player | Draft | 2025 Team | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tyreek Hill | R5 (165) | MIA | RES |
| Sterling Shepard | R2 (40) | TB | ACT |
| Chris Moore | R4 (107) | WAS | ACT |
| Demarcus Robinson | R4 (126) | SF | RES |
| Laquon Treadwell | R1 (23) | IND | DEV |
| Kalif Raymond | Undrafted | DET | ACT |
| Robbie Chosen | Undrafted | SF | DEV |
Raymond by season
| Season | Team | G | Tgt | Rec | ReYds | ReTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | DEN | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | NYJ | 8 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 0 |
| 2019 | TEN | 10 | 13 | 10 | 215 | 2 |
| 2020 | TEN | 16 | 16 | 9 | 187 | 0 |
| 2021 | DET | 16 | 71 | 48 | 576 | 4 |
| 2022 | DET | 17 | 64 | 47 | 616 | 0 |
| 2023 | DET | 17 | 44 | 35 | 489 | 1 |
| 2024 | DET | 13 | 25 | 20 | 252 | 2 |
| 2025 | DET | 15 | 30 | 24 | 289 | 1 |
From a 2016 undrafted free agent who stuck briefly in Denver, to bouncing through the Jets and Titans, to landing in Detroit in 2021 — Raymond is now in his 5th straight year as a Lion, his longest stretch in any city. Of his 2016 WR draft class, only 7 WRs are still rostered in 2025, and just two of those (Raymond and Robbie Chosen) were undrafted.
Receiving yards by season
| Season | Rec Yds |
|---|---|
| 16 | 0 |
| 17 | 12 |
| 19 | 215 |
| 20 | 187 |
| 21 | 576 |
| 22 | 616 |
| 23 | 489 |
| 24 | 252 |
| 25 | 289 |
Why it matters. Undrafted WRs almost never make it to a 10th season. The 2016 class produced exactly two undrafted WRs still on an NFL roster nine years later — Raymond and Robbie Chosen — and only Raymond is on the active list. Surviving alongside R1-R5 draftees is the actual story; the longevity isn't typical, it's a survivor stat.
118-yard game on 3 catches vs. MIN in 2020 — career-best 39.3 yds/rec.
MilestoneTop receiving games
| Year | Wk | Team | Opp | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 7 | DET | LAR | 6 | 115 | 0 |
| 2020 | 3 | TEN | MIN | 3 | 118 | 0 |
| 2021 | 18 | DET | GB | 4 | 101 | 1 |
| 2023 | 12 | DET | GB | 5 | 90 | 0 |
Raymond's 2 career 100-yard receiving games both happened in Lions seasons. The 118-yard Titans game vs. the Vikings — 3 catches, 39.3 yds per catch — is the kind of line you only see from a deep-ball gadget piece. Raymond ran a fly route, caught a bomb, and disappeared from the box score for most of the rest of that year.
Why it matters. A 39.3 yds/rec line on 3 catches is the signature of a designed deep-shot role, not a possession receiver. That single game produced 63% of Raymond's 2020 receiving yards — confirming Tennessee used him as a one-trick vertical threat rather than the route-tree slot he'd later become in Detroit.
Pre-Detroit (2016-20): 38 games, 414 rec yds. As a Lion: 78 games, 2,222 rec yds.
SplitCareer era split
| Era | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Detroit (DEN/NYJ/TEN) | 38 | 20 | 414 | 2 |
| As a Lion (2021-25) | 78 | 174 | 2222 | 8 |
Raymond's first 5 NFL seasons produced 20 receptions across 38 games. In Detroit he's accumulated 174 receptions over 78 games — 8.7x the receiving production per game vs. his pre-Lions years. Dan Campbell's staff turned a special-teams ace into a real WR3.
Why it matters. Going from 0.5 rec/game to 2.2 rec/game on the same player isn't a maturation curve — it's a scheme decision. Detroit's offensive identity under Ben Johnson turned Raymond's vertical-only Tennessee usage into a full slot role, which is why the production curve breaks so sharply at the 2021 boundary.
From 17.9 air yds/target in 2020 to 5.6 in 2025 — Raymond inverted his own route tree.
SplitAir yards & YAC per target by season
| Season | Tgt | Avg Air Yds/Tgt | YAC/Rec |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 13 | 20.3 | 1.4 |
| 2020 | 16 | 17.9 | 4.2 |
| 2021 | 71 | 10.2 | 5.5 |
| 2022 | 64 | 10.0 | 4.6 |
| 2023 | 44 | 8.8 | 6.1 |
| 2024 | 25 | 7.6 | 8.1 |
| 2025 | 30 | 5.6 | 6.5 |
Raymond's average air yards per target collapsed from 20.3 in Tennessee (2019) to 5.6 in Detroit (2025) — a 14.7-yard drop. Meanwhile his YAC per reception climbed from 1.4 to 6.5. Same player, opposite route distribution: a designed deep threat became a short-area, run-after-catch slot.
Why it matters. This is the clearest single-stat fingerprint of how the Lions repositioned him. In Tennessee he ran fly routes and waited for the bomb; in Detroit he runs shallow crossers and screens. The air-yards-per-target line is essentially a depth chart for his usage, and it's been dropping every year of his career.
3rd-most receiving yards by any Lions WR over the past 5 years — behind only ARSB and Jameson.
ComparisonLions WR receiving yards, 2021-2025
| Player | Rec Yds | Rec | Rec TDs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amon-Ra St. Brown | 6,663 | 577 | 45 |
| Jameson Williams | 2,611 | 155 | 18 |
| Kalif Raymond | 2,222 | 174 | 8 |
| Josh Reynolds | 1,525 | 105 | 11 |
| DJ Chark | 502 | 30 | 3 |
| Tim Patrick | 416 | 34 | 3 |
Across the entire Dan Campbell rebuild window, only two Lions WRs have produced more receiving yardage than Raymond: the slot superstar (Amon-Ra) and the first-round vertical threat (Jameson). Raymond — undrafted, 5'8", brought in to return punts — is the third pillar of the Lions WR room by raw output, ahead of every veteran free-agent acquisition.
Why it matters. Detroit drafted Jameson Williams 12th overall and paid Josh Reynolds, DJ Chark, and Tim Patrick free-agent money to be WR3s. Raymond, a 2021 special-teams pickup, has outproduced all of them combined in raw yards over the rebuild — proof the Lions keep finding their WR3 internally rather than buying one.
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