Detroit Tight End Hakeem Valles Shines In Preseason Victory


Detroit Lions Tight End Hakeem Valles Continues To Show Well In Preseason With Another Strong Performance In Friday Night’s Victory Over The Tampa Bay Buccaneers.


The Detroit Lions are not likely to feature the tight end position heavily in their passing attack in 2018, but former Monmouth tight end Hakeem Valles has shown well thus far in preseason and had another strong outing yesterday.

With Luke Willson, the biggest addition at the tight end position this off season, battling a knee injury, Hakeem Valles received plenty of opportunities in the preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He made the most of those opportunities.

Hakeem Valles hauled in three passes for 38 yards in this latest preseason game. It’s not a flashy stat line, but he accomplished this with limited reps and the receptions came at good times.

Hakeem Valles trails only Marcus Lucas in production at the tight end position through three weeks of preseason with seven receptions on ten targets for sixty nine yards. Lucas is a long shot to make the roster leaving Hakeem Valles as the most productive of the likely candidates to make the roster.

Free agent acquisitions Luke Willson and Levine Toilolo and last year’s fifth round pick Michael Roberts combine for only four receptions for 41 total yards. With Hakeem Valles playing well in both preseason and training camp, he is making a very strong case to make the roster and potentially see meaningful reps in the regular season if Luke Willson misses an extended period of time.

With roster cuts incoming, a strong preseason performance from Valles will likely put him into serious consideration for the Detroit Lions final 53 man roster.

Thanks for checking out the article everyone. Go Lions! You can follow me on Twitter @Lanny1925 and be sure to join the community on the Detroit Lions subreddit.

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About the Author

Sean Lanigan
I love fantasy football, fantasy baseball, music, books, video games, and all things nerd. I'm a big football fan and a bigger Detroit Lions fan. I was born in Michigan but have spent the vast majority of my life living in Viking and Packer country. If you are a Lions fan in Minnesota, hit me up, and let's watch some football.