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Speaker 5: Hey, everyone. Jefferson here with your daily DLP. It is July 8. Welcome to Wednesday. Continuing with our theme for this week of players who have been recent Lions draft picks who might be on the outside looking in in 2026 as we get ready for training camp later this month. Started the week with Giovanni Manu, who I do not have making the team. Yesterday's episode was Ennis Rake Straw, who I do have making the team provided that he's healthy, which is a big if, that he has thus far been unable to, accomplish. Today, we're moving forward a year to one of the, twenty twenty five draft picks, and that is this guy. Number 19, Dominic Lovett, wide receiver, formerly from Georgia. Actually, he started his college career at Missouri. He was a Rick Straw teammate for a couple seasons, before, before Rick Straw graduated. And Lovett transferred to Georgia for his final two years. He is in a numbers crunch at a position where he's gonna really have to earn it on special teams. Like, spoiler alert, that his entire lion's fate, basically, revolves around special teams because let's look at the offense. The top four receivers really are set. The top three, certainly. Amman Raus Saint Brown, Jameson Williams, Isaac Tesla, and then they signed Greg Dortch. Dortch is smaller than Lovett. Lovett is listed at five ten one eighty five. I will tell you that's pretty accurate from seeing him in mini camp. He actually does he might look a little bit a little bit taller than that, but not not much. So he he is a slot slot only receiver. That's what Dortch is, but Dortch is an accomplished seasoned professional. One of the best yak creators, yards after catch, in football and has been on some bad offenses with some interesting quarterbacks. He caught passes in Arizona from Kyler Murray and Jacoby Brissett from the last couple of years. Actually, don't think that either of them is terrible, but they were not blessed with a lot of receiving firepower. Yeah. I I think Dortch is very clearly number four, and after his he had a great mini camp. Always open instantly open. That's not something we can say for Lovett. Lovett was he played the role at Georgia. There's been a lot of guys from that Georgia system who have been this type of slot player, almost never runs a route past, like, eight to 10 yards. Everything is very close to the line of scrimmage, very horizontal, side to side, not a lot of vertical. He does have speed, but he is somebody who is going to catch a quick slam or a hook. And you try to make him make the first tackler miss. That's his game. There's been a lot of those dudes from Georgia, and not many of them have succeeded in transitioning to the NFL. Now that doesn't mean you can't scout the helmet on that, and every player is different. But understand that the role that he was in at Georgia is a role that in college offenses specifically, it's very easy to thrive. And the NFL, where the defensive players are bigger and also faster, but also tend to play more press. And the spacing is a little bit different because the hash marks are closer together. Like, it's he's already at a little bit of a disadvantage there. So he is competing realistically for wide receiver five or wide receiver six if they keep six.

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Speaker 5: That's with Tom Kennedy, Tarek Black, Malik Cunningham, and the rest of the former UFO guys that they've all brought in. Jackson Meeks could be that guy, although he is much more of an extraordinarily undersized tight end at this point than, that he is wide receiver. But so where Lovett and where the scouting reports all of it were and where my scouting report on Lovett was was that he is going to be a guy who is probably your backup slot receiver, but he's also got a shot to be a very good special teams player. Well, we didn't get a lot of that as a rookie. He played some special teams in just about every game, but he was only a regular, like, on the field appearance on special teams for the middle chunk of the season from weeks four to eight, which also spans the the bi week that was in there. Didn't get a get any return action. And in mini camp, despite the fact that he does have a profile that suggested he could be a returner, wasn't wasn't near the top of the reps there. So if you're going to be Dominic Lovett and you're chasing a position where the crowd ahead of you, like, to be straight, he if you have to have a receiver and you're choosing between Tom Kennedy and Dominic Lovett, who played the same basic role, Tom Kennedy is extraordinarily much more physical, more nuanced with his route running. And Kennedy has struggled to make this team year in, year out, though I believe he is. In fact, the longest tenured lion now. Been around a long time. Survivor because he blocks his ass off, because he is always where and when he needs to be on a route. Because the lions do trust, Jared Goff specifically, that if you throw him the ball, he's gonna catch it. And in minicamp, I have it in my nose. Lovett put two easy throws on the ground. One of them, he was trying to he was trying to run before he caught the ball, which is not an uncommon ailment for people of his size. And the other one was a little bit low, and he didn't get down to to get it. He's he has always struggled, by the way, with with drops. Something that did hit him at Georgia was one of the the raps on him and several scouting reports. So now you're looking at a guy who's gotta make it on special teams. He didn't stand out on special teams. Didn't record a special teams tackle last year. Not noted for his blocking ability. I looked up his score like it's it's straight, like, baseline, which means that they he basically didn't really do anything positive or negative on special teams. Talked about this with Rick Straw, although it doesn't necessarily apply to him because he's fragile, and you don't put fragile people on special teams. But if you are a depth player on this roster at linebacker, tight end, wide receiver, running back, defensive back, You damn well better be able to contribute on special teams. Dave Fipp demands it. And Lovett hasn't shown that he can be that guy yet. So it's an uphill battle for Dominic Lovett to make it in year two. It's a seventh round pick. Not like it's a massive investment in him. If if it doesn't work, he's just he's he's got to find a role that he can show where he is definitively better than anyone else competing for that role. That's true of that's true of Manu. It's true of all the players who are on the roster bubble. You know, find one thing. Find your niche. Find your lane where you do that, and you make yourself as indispensable and irreplaceable as possible in that role. That way, it's true in every sport. You need that in hockey. You need that in baseball. Basketball. My god. Basketball is full of that. Guys who who can only do one thing, but they do it very well. And that's their role, and they do that one thing better than anybody else can do, and that's that's how you stay in the league. That's where Lovett's at going into year two. It's also telling to me that they have signed so many former UFO players. Just looking at the roster here. This is the their roster from the last day of mini camp, which was two weeks ago, three weeks ago.

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Speaker 5: You know, when we see Cedric Wilson still there, Kendrick Love's obviously out, but lot of all the new UFO guys that they brought in, They're not bringing those guys in if Dominic Lovett is good enough as a receiver that he doesn't need challenging. Now they are definitely casting a wide net, which suggests to me that it's going to be a very intriguing battle. And it's also gonna be one where I think there's gonna be a lot of transactions throughout camp. And it might not be the lions necessarily giving up on any of the players. When you are the agent of one of these players, and it could very well it could very well be talking about Lovett's agent here, though, like, don't don't quote me that's I'm saying that Dominic Lovett's agent will get him out like that. That's not what I'm saying. In general, when you are in a roster log jam like the lions have at wide receiver this summer, and another team has an opening or might want to create an opening where you have a clearer path, there's no problem in leaving Detroit and finding your way to another roster where you have a better shot to make it. That's that's an agent doing his job. As much as we like to think that there's loyalty to the the lines who drafted him, There shouldn't be. If he's got a clearer path in Tampa Bay or Houston or Las Vegas, he should try and go get it. And, the the draft ties shouldn't shouldn't really matter in his stake. That's where he's at. And, again, they've told they they have told him this without saying it by bringing all that competition in that he is on the spot. Will he make it? I don't have him making the team. I have him, in fact, below, Cunningham. I have him below Wilson, probably below at least one of the new UFO guys, whether it's black or, lost his name. There there there's there's several of them. So it's it's a very uphill battle, for for being on the roster bubble for Dominic Lovett this summer. If it does pop, he is a he is a guy that I do think that would clear waivers. Again, presuming that he gets to the end of training camp without getting getting antsy or, you know, or he shows well enough that the lions wanna keep him on the field. Like, that that's the best case. And, again, it's probably special teams related more than it is wide receiver related. He will have to maximize every special teams rep he gets, whether it's returning, whether it's blocking, whatever he can do, gunning. That that's his path to making it in Detroit or also if it doesn't happen in Detroit and making it somewhere else. That's your daily for today, folks. Enjoy the the wonderful humid day that's due here, here in West Michigan, I know it's supposed to be, like, 88 with, like, 88% humidity. I like it that way. You will, find me on a kayak in the Kalamazoo River today if you're out there. Try not to get beaten by swans because they are

Speaker 8: not happy

Speaker 5: birds. Angry birds. Yeah. Shameless plug for a sponsorship offer there. Angry birds, come on. Bring it. I play the game. My wife plays the game. Have for a long time. Movie was terrible, though. Enough. Jeff Friston signing out. Be good doing another, everybody.