Pride of Detroit
Well, what’s the point in predicting 53-man rosters if a team is only going to keep 50?
That’s the odd reality facing Detroit Lions writers this week after the team made a handful of surprising moves. None of which were more surprising than the team cutting three more players than they had to by the 4 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline.
Let’s address that, and some other roster oddities, after the Lions’ 2025 initial cutdowns.
Over at Pride of Detroit Direct, I claimed that the final five roster spots were going to be really tough to figure out, and I had 12 bubble players whose status would be hard to predict:
I thought those 12 players were fighting for five roster spots. Technically, they were, but it turns out Detroit would only spend two on the group—one for Lovett, one for Smith. Three spots went to nobody. (Note: I also whiffed on Dan Skipper vs. Jamarco Jones.)
The important thing to remember here is that most of these players are expected to clear waivers. Of this group, only Muti and Pittman have more than two years in this league. Most of these players have only a few snaps at the NFL level. A claimed player has to join a 53-man roster. Think back to the final preseason game. Did any of these players unequivocally earn a spot on an NFL roster?
My guess is that of the 10 remaining bubble players who were cut, at least eight will return on the practice squad.
Well, there’s a pretty good chance the Lions have plans for those roster spots. Last year, Detroit cut down to 52 players, and after claiming Trevor Nowaske from waivers the next day, they were right back up to 53.
This seems a little bit more than that. For one, it’s hard to predict who will be on waivers—and it’s even harder to predict whether your waiver claim will be beaten out by someone with a higher priority. Additionally, three spots suggest that the Lions already have primary and backup plans for those roster spots. One additional possibility is that they already have an agreement in place with an unsigned or recently released veteran who was not subject to waivers.
Which, of course, leads to more talk about…
Not only do the Lions have three open roster spots, but they opted to keep only three defensive ends on the initial 53-man roster. While Detroit can make up for some of that by utilizing players like Pat O’Connor, Mekhi Wingo, and Derrick Barnes on the edge, it seems just as likely that a roster...
