ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Marvin Jones sat at his locker in January, a half-hour after the season ended with a playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks, and it all came out: the frustration from a season he felt went unfulfilled; the annoyance of a year that started strong personally, only to end with a thud; the realization that he wouldn't play again for nine months even though for one of the first times in his career he wanted to keep going.

It all came out then in his words, his facial expressions and his actions. A career-high 930 yards? Not good enough, especially since half of them came in the first four games of the season. Not enough touchdowns, not enough receptions, not enough anything for the Detroit Lions' premier free-agent signing last season.

Soon after that moment, though, Jones let it all go away. The memories remained. The passion remained. But the anger, he said, left him. Instead of letting that fester, he searched for ways to improve himself, to make sure he could be a better player this year than he was last year. And that season of disappointment, that's where it all came from.

"It was something that I was feeling for a while, not just after that moment," Jones told ESPN. "It was kind of lingering and, yeah, it happens. It's kind of the first time, like, man, I wanted to keep playing, you know. In terms of wanting to keep playing so I could get it out, get the bad taste out of my mouth.

"But at the end of the day, went back and went to work, like I always do."

Jones didn't change much in his training this offseason. He kept his usual regimen, one that turned him from a mid-round pick to a player who could end up as a team's No. 1 receiver. There were alterations, though. For the first time, he trained with former All-Pro Randy Moss. In that training, he started to re-evaluate the little things he was doing that could take him from a good NFL receiver to what he believes he can be -- one of the best receivers in the league.

The potential is there. He showed it in spurts throughout his career in Cincinnati and Detroit. But there were things he didn't follow through on during the course of games that had hindered him.

Footwork was one. It might sound small, but as he explained to ESPN, putting his foot in one spot versus another six inches away after the break in his route might be the difference between a touchdown and being caught from behind. And he also needs to remain quarterback-friendly for Matthew Stafford by running away from potential coverages instead of wanting to try to find contact and then go.

"Being more consistent in route-running and there's a split decision that you take that it was a good enough route so let me just catch the ball," Jones said. "You always have to think ahead. Always think touchdown, and I do, but the ways in which I do it is a little bit different. Instead of saying, 'OK, boom, that was a good route, where's the ball?’ now, 'Boom, that was a good route, now stay friendly and now, boom, let's go out the back door and be fierce after the catch.'

"That's something that I honed in on throughout this offseason and in the spring until now, and it's really helped me."

The repetition has been important. He's focused on making sure the footwork maneuvers have been good and that he's been more accessible as a receiver to Stafford by coming back to the ball and running himself open when he can.

He wouldn't, though, open up about his goals. There are no numbers attached to them -- he's never been one to care much about that, shrugging off his 205-yard game against Green Bay last year and a four-touchdown game against the Jets -- but rather maximizing his chances when he has them.

"I would just put it like this: All of my opportunities throughout my career, I've always capitalized on almost all of my opportunities," Jones said. "Last year, it was more -- it wasn't that I sucked, it was that opportunities that I always make that I didn't make sometimes last year. Those big plays, those almost-impossible plays where I just come down with it, some of it wasn't happening.

"With the opportunity that I was given, especially later on in the season, I got to make those, you know what I'm saying? That's pretty much it. It's not that it was horrible and it was pretty much nothing, it was I know there was more there for me."

That's what he's hoping this year, especially since the Lions still have Golden Tate, added Kenny Golladay and should theoretically have Ameer Abdullah, Theo Riddick and Eric Ebron healthy. Yes, that means more players for Stafford to look for. But it also means more chances for Jones to get favorable coverages.

And if that happens, he's determined not to miss out on his chances for a second straight year. Because he doesn't want to end the 2017 season the way he felt after the 2016 season -- like he should have and could have done a lot more.