Pride of Detroit
The Detroit Lions have found themselves bit by another injury bug.
After already losing Ennis Rakestraw Jr. in training camp and D.J. Reed last week against the Cleveland Browns, the Lions lost two more cornerbacks this past week. Khalil Dorsey suffered an injury during the week and Terrion Arnold suffered a shoulder injury against the Cincinnati Bengals, and both are expected to be out for “a while” per Dan Campbell. Entering the season, cornerback looked like one of Detroit’s deepest positions, yet just five games into the season, the Lions are already trotting out the deep reserves.
Not only are the Lions running low on starters, they are running low on cornerbacks in general. Detroit’s current skeleton crew can suffice for the short-term, but they are an injury away from a completely decimated cornerback room. As such, they will need to add players.
The question for general manager Brad Holmes will be who to add—and how much will it cost them? Let us look at some potential avenues for the Lions to explore.
Active: Terrion Arnold (injured), Khalil Dorsey (injured), Avonte Maddox, Amik Robertson, Rock Ya-Sin
Practice squad: Tre Flowers, Erick Hallett, Nick Whiteside
As of this writing, both Arnold and Dorsey are on the active roster, but that is not expected to last long—an Injury Reserve move could happen within the coming days. That leaves just Robertson and Ya-Sin as outside cornerbacks with Maddox in the slot—a very gutted depth chart.
As for the practice squad, expect at least one of Flowers, Hallett, or Whiteside to get promoted to the active roster. Flowers was elevated for the Bengals game despite having signed with Detroit on October 1. He is the only practice squad player with starting NFL experience (44 starts to his name), so he is the likeliest candidate to step into the lineup. However, both Whiteside (who was also signed on October 1) and Hallett were with the Lions in training camp and played well went called upon.
Luc Barcoo, Dicaprio Bootle, Allan George, Gavin Holmes, D.J. Miller, Stantley Thomas-Oliver, Tyson Russell, Divaad Wilson
Due to a multitude of training camp injuries, the Lions had to shuffle their cornerback depth chart on a near weekly basis. Of the names on this list, only Holmes is currently signed to a football team, having signed with the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Elks on October 6.
Bootle and Thomas-Oliver were released with injury settlements, meaning they would need to miss an unknown length of time (based on their injury) plus three weeks in order to sign back to Detroit. If the injuries were deemed as short-term, the window could theoretically open for either player.
However, none of these players stood out over the course of training camp and they were each unanimously listed as “OUT” on the Pride of Detroit Bubble Watch.
Free agents: C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Steven Gilmore, Jerry Jacobs, Craig James, Emmanuel Moseley, Cameron Sutton
***On another...
