The Detroit Lions promoted wide receiver Tom Kennedy from the practice squad Friday in a move that coach Matt Patricia said had more to do with Kennedy’s special-teams ability than him being insurance for Danny Amendola.
“I think he’s really earned the opportunity, and I think for us we’re always just going to try to put everybody out there that we think will help us give us an opportunity to win the game, so certainly all that ties into it,” Patricia said. “And maybe more than just from an offensive perspective, maybe overall in (special teams, too), having the extra bodies that can handle some of the speed and some of the different schemes that they do.”
Kennedy, who signed with the Lions after a rookie minicamp tryout this spring, and Patricia said the movement skills he showed in that sport translate to much of what he’s asked to do in the kicking game in the NFL.
“It’s a very fast football team that we’re playing,” Patricia said. “It’s not only fast on offense, it’s very fast on special teams. Those returners, they hit top speed very fast. They do a great job of setting up the return game for those guys and just making sure that we have those players on the field that can handle that.”