Position Group Size for the 53 Man Roster

[Lions88]

Pretty amazing looking at our secondary from last year to now !! Only 3 from last year will be on the new 53.

[MittenSportsFan]

@Davicus

@DBend144

Zylstra is just the best fit right now.

Is he though? He’s never played a significant number of special teams snaps. I just don’t think you keep a 4th TE to play ST. That’s not really a 4-phase position. You’re not going to ask him to go out and tackle return guys - especially with the new rules where we should see more returns, and typically you only need 2 TEs on the FG unit for blocking (Wright and Mitchell).

I honestly think we already have our Cabinda replacement (in more ways than one) with Rodriguez. And CJ Moore is going to be a 4-phase ST guy along with JRM, who will eat up a lot of snaps missing from Pittman, and take over Personal Protector duties on Punt Team from Cabinda. But yeah, I just see an extra DE/LB like you mentioned, Betts or another LB like Agude being the ST spot over Zylstra. Just because most ST usage by TE comes in the blocking realm and I’m not sure you really need to have more than your TE2 or TE3 take those duties. And historically, the Dan/Brad regime has just always had a bunch of ST LBers (Chris Board, Josh Woods, Pittman, JRM, etc)

All that to say, I could be wrong, but I’d be super surprised to see Zylstra stick as a ST add. I think he has a better shot of beating Mitchell out for TE3 than he does winning a ST role.

I agree on Zylstra. That’s why I thought he would have to compete for his position.
To DBend’s defense, there are not many true LB’s on the roster.
Houston, Betts and Agude are all really edge rushers and are not as comfortable tackling in space as an off-ball LB.
Zylstra has the further disadvantage of returning from a season ending knee injury.

Having lost so many of his Special Teams unit I can understand why Holmes gave Fipps a draft pick to use.
The competition for roster spots is almost exclusively on Special Teams with all the new faces.

[DBend144]

Zylatra played 30% of ST snaps.

Again im just trying to find someone that replaces
Cabinda/Pittman/Nowaske from last season.

Big boy ST snap%
Kept -
Wright 40%, Mitchell 32%, JRM, 82%, Rodrego, 68%, Campbell 39%,

Lost -
Pittman 80%, Nowaske/ Cabinda. 35%, Daniels 16%

Thats 131% of snaps on special teams between the LB/FB/TE that we dont have on the roster.

So i say Zylstra to pick up Pittmas share.

The rest can go to those other that we stil have or the DEs/OLBs.

[Thats2]

Special teams, at least for kickoffs, are going to be enormously different this year. It would be interesting to know the splits between punts and kickoffs.

[Davicus]

@DBend144

Zylatra played 30% of ST snaps.

I think you’re reading these stats wrong. 30% of his snaps were ST snaps. He had 100 ST snaps in 2022 and 32 in 2021. Which was good for 20% of the teams special teams snaps in 2022 and 7% in 2021.

All of these snaps are on the offensive side of special teams (FG/Punt blocking) as he has never recorded a defensive statistic (or snap it appears). (“offensive side” is not the proper term here, but it’s clear his role does not have him attempting to bring down the opposing returners)

I understand you’re trying to pencil in someone for losing Cabina/Pittman/Nowaske, but there are different positions on ST and the one that Zylstra plays isn’t the same as what Pittman/Cabinda did.

It’d be like saying “Well, we lost ARSB, but it’s okay because we can pencil in Jermar Jefferson at WR because he has hands”. Maybe not to that extreme, but it’s more the concept. 4-Phase guys are a much different role than ST blocking units.

And maybe I’m way wrong here and Zylstra is the guy, I just think it’d be such a deviation from how he has been used in the past, and what type of player use in that 4-Phase role that I’d probably eat a boot if the Lions kept a 4th TE for ST purposes.

Anyways, this is starting to feel a lot like last year when I was trying to explain why I thought Pittman was a lock for the roster and I don’t want to live another offseason having discussions about ST players, lol

It’s still super early and I think you’re close on a lot of your projections. No need to split hairs over Awosika and Zylstra. It’ll become a lot more clear after a couple preseason games and camp.

[DBend144]

Absolutely and with the new rules. They could be prioritizing better blocked and tacklers so well see.

Yea pittman is a HUGE loss. Yea he only played 4 defensive snaps but 363 on ST. thats huge.

Have to wait and see who rises to the call.

But as for Awusika i totally could see them using one of those Centers they brought in.
All of them played multiple games at both guard spots.

Im excited to see how the roster shapes up

[Spartansd]

I feel like the new kick off rules may cause both sides to look more like your punt teams.

And honestly maybe even most of the starting Oline.

Belichick had some interesting comments about the new KO rules and mentions he would go heavy not light and fast. So I am actually super curious to how this all plays out.

You can bet that the first 4-8 games are going to be super crazy and lots of TDs. Then once teams figure out the best way to attack it things will settle down.

Edit - I am also expecting that the substitution rules will be in effect. Like the Receiving team will need to trot out their 11 and then the Defense can adjust and match up.

[MittenSportsFan]

@Spartansd

I feel like the new kick off rules may cause both sides to look more like your punt teams.

And honestly maybe even most of the starting Oline.

Belichick had some interesting comments about the new KO rules and mentions he would go heavy not light and fast. So I am actually super curious to how this all plays out.

The new kickoff will be very much like a punt with players only being 5 yards apart and not being able to move until the ball is caught.
Being so close together allows bigger people to track, block, and control the cover team. In previous kickoffs big lineman could never catch the cover team to block them.
It will be interesting even in preseason how teams set up returns.