Some stream-of-consciousness thoughts on the Detroit Lions roster moves that led to the initial 53-man roster and then the more finalized version after waiver claims, plus the early iteration of the practice squad. Best consumed while listening to Dream Theater’s Stream of Consciousness from their latest live album…

1. Keeping five RBs on the initial 53 was a stunner, even with Isiah Pacheco’s injury and Sione Vaki’s seeming fragility. For a team that emphasized becoming more of a bell-cow RB team with Jahmyr Gibbs and willingly parting ways with a very good No. 2 RB in David Montgomery, keeping more RBs and not less is a bit of a head-scratcher. 

2. It was a little surprising that the team didn’t place rookie LB Jimmy Rolder on the IR-designated to return ahead of cutdowns. That would require Rolder to miss the first four weeks, but based on what Dan Campbell has said about Rolder’s injury, that might be the case anyway. 

That was a sign to me that the team wasn’t in need of extra spots. Placing Rolder on IR-DR was an easy, viable maneuver to buy a roster spot for four weeks. Why is that significant?

It means that, had the Lions truly wanted to keep Greg Dortch or Nick Whiteside, they had the means to pull it off. I’m still at a loss why Detroit cut Dortch, almost as much because he’s the only real return specialist on the roster as it was for his unique slot receiving abilities. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more surprised by a Lions cut than Dortch. 

3. I wasn’t necessarily surprised the Lions kept Brian Branch on the PUP list to start the season, but there was viable reason to believe they could have activated the Pro Bowl safety and included him on the initial 53. He showed zero limitations in his work with trainers. Keep in mind, Branch tore his Achilles a week before Patrick Mahomes did, and Mahomes was (allegedly) cleared for the final preseason game. Safety is a more physically demanding position, but still…

4. Like most everyone, I incorrectly presumed that Tyler Conklin was set to be TE3, and that Jackson Meeks was competing to snag a rare fourth TE spot. It turns out, Meeks beat out Conklin for that third TE position. That’s a testament to the Lions’ emphasis on special teams, an area where Meeks was consistently the best player in Detroit all summer.

There are two ways of looking at this. The negative view is that the Lions erred in expecting Conklin to recapture what made him a very successful, do-it-all TE in New York. It turns out the prized free agent signing who crashed and burned with the Chargers last year is more of Conklin’s reality. I feel like missing the early part of camp with a calf injury kept Conklin from really asserting his case early. 

The positive view is that the Lions learned from their Kenny Yeboah experience a year earlier and had some viable insurance in place with Meeks. The conversion from WR to TE is well ahead of schedule for Meeks, and that’s a very real victory for the team’s coaching staff. 

5. Undrafted rookie EDGE Eric O’Neill made it, and I’m proud to see it happen. I identified O’Neill before the 2026 Combine as someone who fits the Lions’ defense, and Holmes and the Detroit scouts saw what I saw. But O’Neill still had to make it happen, and he did just that with his relentlessly successful pass-rushing prowess. It worked in practices. It worked in preseason games. He was the 2nd-biggest surprise to make it, after Jabari Small. 

6. Brad Holmes deserves credit for something that I don’t think fans praise him for enough. No players the Lions waived were claimed by another team, despite having some attractive candidates (notably Erick Hunter and Devin Cochrane). As he has proven in the NFL Draft, Holmes and his staff have a very keen understanding/intelligence on what’s happening with the teams around them and their desires for players Detroit has interest in drafting, or also keeping on the practice squad. He got burned with Trevor Nowaske and Starling Thomas in 2023, and that’s been it–and they recouped Nowaske midseason that year. 

7. One of the hallmarks of Dan Campbell has been that his words in press conferences mean something. He doesn’t do deception well. That has led me, and most everyone else in Lions land, to take it quite seriously when he unpromptedly praises a player. That, as much as anything else, was the basis for me including DTs Chris Smith and Ben Stille on my 53-man projection. 

It didn’t matter. Even with Campbell’s multiple praises of Smith, who was the only true NT on the roster, the team cut him. Stille emphatically outplayed Levi Onwuzurike right away as a late-camp addition, and Campbell cited him as someone making a quick name for himself. Didn’t matter. 

I don’t think Campbell was being purposely coy or deceptive. I think it’s more a case of reading a little too much into his pre-practice comments. We’ve been ingrained to do that, and breaking that habit will require some effort and discipline that I didn’t expect to need. 

8. In looking at the roster now, my biggest concern is cornerback. D.J. Reed is a good starter, and Rock Ya-Sin fits the scheme well. Roger McCreary did step up in preseason after a really sluggish start to camp, too. But that’s not a group that is going to dissuade opposing QBs from throwing at them. The depth, even with promising rookie Keith Abney and some veteran safeties (Avonte Maddox, Christian Izien, Thomas Harper) who can play CB too, isn’t reassuring. It’s been much worse in recent years, to be clear, but this is still not a championship-caliber corner room–unless the pass rush is really good. And it might be…

9. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more obvious rookie draft pick release that Tyre West. The seventh-round DL project from Tennessee was the player the offensive linemen wanted to draw in pit drills (1-on-1s) and didn’t ever functionally display the athleticism required to make it in the NFL. Probably didn’t help his case that West was usually among the very first players off the practice field during camp, too. It’s only a seventh-round pick on a roster that didn’t have as many openings as it did draft picks, but West was a rough miss–at least initially. 

10. I like the idea of devoting some practice squad spots to developmental projects. Two in particular stand out as worthy, young players with upside to make the 53 in 2027 if it clicks: DB Amaris Brown and IOL Mason Miller. 

Miller joined the Lions as an undrafted rookie from North Dakota State a year ago as a tackle. The rookie’s earlygoing quickly shifted him inside to guard, and that’s where he spent most of training camp this year. But injuries created a need for another center in practices, and Miller jumped into the fire late in the preseason. So far, so good. He needs seasoning at making line calls and anchoring against behemoths inside, but the potential is there. I thought he dominated in Indy on Saturday. 

Brown is a well-traveled undrafted rookie. He’s a ballhawk with eyes and instincts that cannot be taught. If Deshea Townsend and the Lions coaches can teach him discipline with his hands and more sure tackling (he’s a hitte,r not a tackler), they’ve got a ready-made replacement in 2027 for Avonte Maddox and/or Christian Izien as a hybrid free safety/outside CB who can blitz from the slot, too.