Kalif is a big time exception to the rule here. Probably 95% of the time (maybe more) are done after 4 years with that tract record. Let alone guys who haven’t done a thing.
But it’s fine, we can let this argument rest 
Now nobody else mention me on this topic! PLEASE 
I’m mentioning you!!
The Lions have done this routinely with guys other teams cut… Tim Patrick… Josh Reynolds… They take players not good enough for other teams and make them productive. And when they leave, their production drops off a cliff. I believe that trend will continue, the Lions will continue to make players better
All this talk for one likely truth:
Tom Kennedy beat out Dortch.
I’m totally cool with that.
284 responses later and Tom ■■■■■■■ Kennedy is still the man.
If the roster was Tom as WR #5 everything goes away. Dortch was beat out. Tom dresses on game day and Martin likely sits.
But instead, Brad plays a financial game, we freak out and in the old Tom Kennedy is back. I love that. Tom has always looked good with his limited opportunities. Time to see what he can do. You know we are going to get everything he has in the tank.
Both those players had a history of being successful when called upon. The guys on our roster are not them…not even close. We didn’t sign a Tim Patrick. We kept old guys with ZERO experience.
Give me a Tim Patrick or Josh Reynolds type as the WR4 and I would’ve never said a word. Dortch doesn’t cut it??? Fine, get someone else with a track record that does.
I like Teslaa…but he’s not exactly a proven commodity either. All our eggs are in that basket + health. It’s just not a sound plan imo 
Give me a Hopkins, Cooks, Slayton and i would be satisfied. If you don’t see a difference between a player like that and what we have then there’s nothing else to talk about.
Looked good to Lions fans only. No one else has ever wanted him despite him being available every year.
Again, you want proof they’ve been good in the league vs trusting the staff can find guys and make them equally good as they’ve shown they can do in the past. WR 4/5 are there for special teams, both of which are exceptional at and that’s all I really care about
This staff is great…but they’ve made some pretty obvious mistakes in the past too with the roster. You know it true also. I mean is keeping a 7th linebacker really necessary? 29 defensive players and only 21 on offense? The fewest of any team in the league. It’s weird…
Look I’m one of the biggest supporters of this team. Been claiming we have the the best roster or one of for the last 3 years. I’ve had so little to complain about because we’ve been that good. So it’s really weird I’m getting so much backlash for an obvious question mark on the roster.
.
How much money are you willing to part with for them?
Which ones are playing special teams???
Hard for a team to keep 1 WR at the bottom of the depth chart that doesn’t play teams… let alone 3 of them.
This league is full of viable guys no one else wanted. Guys that develop and got better overtime. Some of these guys become Priest Holmes or Harrison in Pittsburgh. Many hang around but every roster has a few guys like this. Rats who kick ass and work hard to prove they belong.
Tom Kennedy is a solid football player. A guy who has worked his ass off and produced when given a shot. He had earned this call up. Like Dan Skipper a couple years ago. He is a viable roster guy. A depth player. A solid professional football player. A star? Nope, but a hustle guy in a league of hustle guys.
And willing blockers. A requirement for any WR playing for MCDC.
And that’s, by all reported accounts, the reason Dortch was cut… He didn’t (or couldn’t) block
We have four elite pass catcher plus Teslaa for 34.2 pass att/game, I am significantly more concerned about our CB room, aside of Reed the whole room is full of depth guys. Rock Ya couldnt prove to be consistent in his career at age 30 so to rely on him feel like a high bet.
Even now, starting Scruggs at center feels riskier to me than to wait until Nov to sign the next Josh Reynolds if necessary. But I remember we had a heated debate about WR3 a few years ago—now it’s WR4.
Martin plays special teams. And Cooks signed for peanuts last year. These guys aren’t commanding contracts at this stage in their careers.
And special team WRs is all we have beyond our top 3 guys. Whoever we sign doesn’t need to play special teams.
WR3 is an unproven guy also. Those crowning Teslaa to be anything more than a redzone threat are just hoping. I like him too…but if he wasn’t the go to guy on any given play he wasn’t getting open. If he gets bumped up to #2 due to injury then we now have an extremely weak 2 & 3…which is what I’m worried about.
The Lions have good depth on the defensive front seven. Hard to be excited about their depth anywhere else
They are already starting backups on o-line and defensive backfield, guys who would normally start filling in later when the starters get nicked up. Now when the starters get nicked up at any offensive position group or defensive backfield they will be dipping into guys who are untested or who haven’t proven to have been good enough at prior stops.
This isn’t a Blame Holmes post either. Losing a few key guys while also keeping the core intact made for some difficult business decisions. But I feel as a fan, you’d have to be the dog in the burning room meme to think everything is fine
I agree with most of this. Starting offense is arguably tops in the league. I will even say I like the depth on the offensive line. But everywhere else, there is no depth. Again if injuries on this side of the ball stay limited like they did the last 2 years, we again will have a top scoring offense.
Defensive front 7 is deep. And if that’s good, which I think we are all expecting it to be, the defense is going to be just fine. It’s not one that will carry you to Ws (why the offensive health is so important with lack of depth), but they can be a middle third defense. Which is enough to be legit contenders. The secondary doesn’t scare me as much as it does others. With the improved front 7, it makes it easier on the back end. And with BBs eventual return + Abney growing into his role throughout the season, I think this unit gets better as the season moves along. It is probably the weakest overall unit on the team, but there are some reinforcements coming (maybe Kerby as well).
Hoping for injury luck to continue on offense and to finally get some of that on the defensive side as well
I agree with this. I simply remain optimistic while also believing we have issues on the roster. Part of that is knowing every team has issues on their roster, part of it is hoping we get some guys back, part of it is believing some of those depth issues could be cheaply and easily remedied if necessary (WR 4-6 for example), and part of it is knowing that the biggest factor to long term success is luck anyway.
I mean, for all that the Rams are currently the heavy favorites, that still only amounts to a 16% chance of winning it all according to Vegas. The oddsmakers are saying that 8.5 times out of 10 they won’t win the Super Bowl. Why? Because of shit outside their control. That’s why every year I just want to have the best chance of making the tourney. Give me that and from there I will cross my fingers.
There’s nothing wrong with that. This is a Lions forum. We’re here to debate these things.
But a debate can’t be about feelings it needs to be about facts. It’s pretty hard to debate feelings. You feel the Lions depth at wide receiver and the skilled positions is weak, but you’ve provided very little in the terms of facts to support that statement.
The facts that have been provided to you so far are the following
Dan Cambell likes his death at wide receiver and has stated this is the deepest wide receiver class he’s ever had to coach.
the Lions skill position group is ranked near the top in the league if not number one overall
the Lions wide receiver group is in the top five if not number one overall.
You clearly feel the lions should add a fifth receiver. My question to you is what are your expectations of that fifth receiver?
Should he be better than TeSlaa?
Should he be better than Kennedy?
Should he be a special team’s ace?
What kind of production are you expecting out of him?
Who would you like the Lions to cut in order to sign him to the final 53?
What would be the salary, cap implications of this signing?
I personally think having your fifth and sixth wide receiver on the practice squad makes a lot of sense considering your fifth and six wide receiver is never active on game day. Your fifth and six wide receiver needs to be cheap due to salary cap implications. If injuries actually mount and the lions are in a playoff hunt they could always work a trade. In the meantime, expectations for a fifth wide receiver should be extremely low and most teams have a developmental player there just like we do in Lucky Jackson.