Lions roster battles created by the new draft class

Lots of good ones this year.
Not like years past where
“whose the best of the worse”
Its “whose the best of the best”

RB3/4 Vaki, Reynolds, Jefferson, Knight, Funk,

WR 3+ DPJ, Raymond, Green, I Williams, Smith etc

T3 Skipper, Manu, Galvin

G3 Mahognay, Sorsdal, Awosika, Farnoik

C3 Eguakun, Clemens, Hudson, Niese

DE2 Paschal, Houston, Davenport, Cominsky, Betts

DBs ALLLL

The DB room is my favorite to see how that plays out.
Moseley, Davis and Arnold i think are the only ones that are for sure outside corners
And Kerby is a Safety.

Everyone else in that DB room is going to get shuffled around and put into where they need to be.

Lions are going to be cutting some good players who will get picked up by other teams.

3 Likes

For once the lions will be cutting players and we expect them to be decent on other teams

In past years. Lions would cut players that we thought were horrible and go on to be good and the guys they kept sucked.

Its such a breath of fresh air

It’s really something that we’re looking at maybe one or two rookie starters. In the dark times we’d be hoping for 4th rounders to be able to step in.

2 Likes

Thats why i didnt pay too much attention to day 3 of the draft for the lions at all. Till i heard the players they got. Which were projected 3rd/4th round picks. In round 5+

But yes. Arnold may start or at least get 50+% of snaps. But will likely be the full blown starter by years end.

Rakestraw. No need to rush him in. Find where he fits in this backfield. Everyone else is a rotational piece/ Developmental. Which i Love.

I personally think our depth is still suspect in quite a few areas. I understand no roster is perfect, but considering the goal is a Superbowl this year, I hope they make a couple more additions.

Craig Reynolds
Antoine Green
Isaiah Williams
Shane Zylstra
Mathieu Betts
Steele Chambers
Kindle Vildor
Khalil Dorsey
Brandon Joseph

POD is projecting everyone of these guys to make the roster. The biggest names they have being cut are Onwuzurike, Dan Skipper, and Awosika. If argue that only 2-3 of these guys would make it on another 53 man roster. That without mentioning that are OLine depth consists of three very young players in Manu, Sorsdal, and Mahogany.

I personally don’t have an issue with a couple of these guys because they are mostly here for special teams (Reynolds/Dorsey), but we clearly need to add some more competition to these spots.

I mean without doing any research.
I would suggest all teams are thin in the exact areas you just mentioned. Remember that all teams have 15-30% turnover YOY. That is about 7 min per team. I think the Lions will have that for sure. So I think everyone is grabbing players out of the same mixing bowl to fill those spots. Additionally, a guy like Reynolds have more value here now at the Lions due to his knowledge and the trust the coaches have in him. Sure his talent might be fringe but anyone they bring in would likely be same. And the argument that the draft dudes replace these guys is just not valid. You are giving up knowledge along with the whole CAP issue. If you have been drafting well these guys are leaving for more money. So it is a big revolving door balancing talent/experience/cost.

My point is that I do not think the Lions roster is going to get much better than it is now as far as overall strength. We will see ebbs and flows based on positional strength and guys drafted. But they are now getting closer to that talent/CAP balance. They are spending big money on ALL PRO guys not Pro Bowl Reserve guys. HUGE difference.

2 Likes

I think that this year, Awosika is going to be my Iffy from last year.

People seem really down on Awosika and I think he’s a great back-up who has played above replacement level when he’s asked to. I think he makes the roster.

Instead of 8 OL and 4TE I think we go with 9OL and 3TE.

But its way too early for this!

1 Like

Agree. The Lions had a history of overspending on guys who weren’t that good–Tracy Walker and Romeo Okwara being the most recent examples. And, the reason was that there was much talent in the pipeline. There was literally no one to replace them at the time they were re-signed.

We have nothing better to do but to argue about these things. I mean this is all we have. I mean 8 or 9 OL is crucial and worthy of blocking someone if they do not agree with our logic :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

It is kind of crazy the details we are now looking at instead of wondering who will start. We know pretty much the top guys. Now we nit pick the backups. Good problem to have if the starters are All Pro

The thing I like most is that there is little to no battles for starting positions.
The X-WR spot is in question but DPJ is the presumed starter.
Terrion Arnold is the presumed starter at CB2.
The big DE spot will be fought between Paschal and Davenport.
The starting MLB will be fought between Barnes & Campbell.
The depth battles are mostly Special Teams battles.
RB3 and RB4 are more about who is better covering punts and kicks than running off tackle. WR5, LB5, LB6, CB6, and S4 must be good special teams players or they won’t make the roster.
The expanded Practice Squad and liberal call up policy make the fringe of the 53 less important. Many of these players will be going up and down all season.
The only glaring hole I see is S3.
Holmes has to find a vet safety by training camp. Brian Branch is serving as the S3 but he is a starter. We don’t want to have Brandon Joseph play meaningful minutes at Safety.
Graham Glasgow is the backup center and also a starter but that is less an issue than O-line. DB’s are the smallest players on the field and most injured. Holmes doesn’t even have an experience safety on the roster after the 2 starters (and they aren’t that experienced either).

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brad trade a guy or 2 for a late round pick from another team.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.