8 Detroit Lions position battles to watch in preseason game vs. Chiefs

The Den
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Running back 5?

In my opinion, the top four running backs are safe: Jahmyr Gibbs, David Montgomery, Craig Reynolds, and Sione Vaki. You may ask yourself: Why would the Lions need a fifth running back? For one, special teams. Additionally, coach Dan Campbell loudly admitted that they’re more than happy to keep extra running backs if other positions don’t step up—particularly when it comes to the wide receiver room.

“We don’t want to keep a guy just because he’s receiver three, four, five,” Campbell told 97.1 The Ticket this week. “We want to keep the best players we have on the roster and that could come in the running back room.”

Backup guard

For the first three weeks of camp, I had assumed that Kayode Awosika had the backup guard position on lock. He’s entering Year 3 with the team and has plenty of experience in this offense.

But Michael Niese has worked his way into the first-team offense in replacement of the injured Kevin Zeitler. Is this a case of just seeing what Niese can do, or has he actually jumped Awosika on the depth chart? It’s likely that they’ll both be out there at the same time on Saturday (Awosika at left guard, Niese at right guard), but pay attention to who is doing a better job.

Cornerback 6?

To be clear, I have the following players safe on the roster: Carlton Davis, Terrion Arnold, Amik Robertson, Ennis Rakestraw, and Khalil Dorsey.

Do the Lions keep a sixth cornerback? Hard to say, but this week as a good reminder of just how injury-prone this position could be. Three of the above five are currently battling something.

That means this cornerback room is going to be tested early and often against Patrick Mahomes. Kindle Vildor has had a strong week of practice, proving again why he has logged starter snaps in 24 games across four seasons. Last year, Steven Gilmore was their pet project, but he’s fallen into the shadows in Detroit’s depth chart. Is there enough time for him to make his case, particularly on special teams?

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Peoples-Jones was brought back this offseason with the seeming intent of being the direct replacement for Josh Reynolds, who left in free agency for Denver. It has not played out that way, though Campbell was encouraged by what he has seen in the last couple of days.

“DPJ I felt like has been, since the game, much better. He’s playing faster and I notice it, we all notice it. So that’s encouraging,” Campbell said of Peoples-Jones, referring to him by his initials.

Peoples-Jones offers size and productive experience. As a full-time WR2 (to Amari Cooper as the No. 1) with the Browns in 2022, the 6-foot-2 Michigan grad caught 61 passes for 839 yards and three TDs. That’s almost exactly half of DPJ’s career production in four seasons, and it sure seems like the outlier instead of the expected norm.

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Hard to figure out what’s going on with DPJ. There’s something missing there.

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