Category: Lions News

Lions make transactions involving 7 players ahead of Week 10

Lions make transactions involving 7 players ahead of Week 10, including placing Jalen Reeves-Maybin on IR and signing 3 from practice squad

It was a very busy Saturday for the Lions ahead of their trip to Houston to play the Texans in Week 10. Detroit made roster moves involving seven players.

The Lions waived EDGE Isaiah Thomas at the first possible opportunity. Thomas was signed off the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad after Week 6, meaning the Lions had to keep him on the active roster for at least three weeks. That time expired ahead of Week 10, and Thomas’ meager contributions (3 tackles, zero QB hurries) made him expendable.

Detroit also placed linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin on injured reserve. Reeves-Maybin suffered a neck injury suffered in the Week 9 win in Green Bay. He will miss at least the next four games, including Sunday.

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To fill those roster vacancies, the Lions signed three players from the practice squad to the active roster:

TE Shane Zylstra
EDGE Al-Quadin Muhammad
LB Abraham Beauplan

Zylstra was out of practice squad elevations, so his signing was expected after the team waived rookie WR Isaiah Williams during the week. Williams has since been claimed by the Cincinnati Bengals.

In this week’s practice squad elevations, offensive tackle Jamarco Jones and linebacker Ezekiel Turner were promoted to play against Houston. It is the first elevation for each player in 2024.

Brian Branch fined for his ejection against the Packers

Lions safety Brian Branch fined for his ejection against the Packers, and also for his middle-finger salute to the Green Bay crowd

After getting ejected from the Lions’ Week 9 win in Green Bay, Detroit safety Brian Branch was expected to earn a fine from the NFL. The league delivered in its weekly doling out of disciplinary actions, which takes place every Saturday.

Branch was fined $10,128 for his unnecessary roughness penalty in the first half of the Lions’ road triumph. He was then fined the matching amount for his middle-finger salute to the Lambeau Field crowd following his ejection.

Any suspension would have already been doled out separate from the fines. Branch will be back in action on Sunday night when the Lions visit the Houston Texans in Week 10.

In related news, Panthers safety Xavier Woods was fined $16,883 for an unnecessary roughness penalty that knocked Saints WR Chris Olave unconscious on the field. Woods was not ejected from the game.

Texans shuffling their starting OL to face the Lions’ strong defensive front

The Texans are shuffling their starting left guard and center spots to face the Lions’ strong defensive front in Week 10

The Detroit Lions are forced to modify their stellar offensive line in Week 10 due to an injury to stalwart left tackle Taylor Decker. Lions coaches haven’t yet revealed their plan for replacing Decker, who is out with a shoulder injury.

Detroit’s opponent, the Houston Texans, is also shuffling the offensive line deck for the Sunday night game.

The Texans are moving regular starting center Juice Scruggs to left guard after losing regular starter Kenyon Green to an injury. Moving Scruggs allows Houston to insert second-year reserve Jarrett Patterson into the lineup as the new starting center.

The interior offensive line has been a massive issue for the Texans all season, so a change might have been in order regardless of Green’s injury. No team gives up a higher pressure rate to interior defensive linemen than Houston, though the injured Green was a big part of that. Patterson is a natural center, while Scruggs does have some starting experience at left guard late in the 2023 campaign.

Regardless of the Texans shuffling, the matchup of Alim McNeill, DJ Reader and Levi Onwuzurike against the Houston G-C-G package is perhaps Detroit’s biggest advantage (on paper anyway) in the game.

Za’Darius Smith explains his cryptic tweet on NFL trade deadline day

New Lions EDGE Za’Darius Smith explains his cryptic tweet on NFL trade deadline day

This past Tuesday was the NFL trade deadline. As anxious as Lions fans were about potentially adding some pass rush help, the player Detroit acquired was notably full of angst as well.

Za’Darius Smith wanted out of Cleveland, where the Browns are 2-7 and drifting farther away from contention with every passing week. Smith had even made it known that Detroit was his preferred destination.

So when a long-rumored deal wasn’t getting done yet on Tuesday morning, Smith shared his frustration with a simple social media post.

“SMH”

Whether the cryptic tweet helped grease the skids for the trade, we may never know. But the deal was done less than 90 minutes later and Smith deleted the post. In his first meeting with the Detroit media, Smith smiled and explained the post.

“It was just taking too long. It was taking too long,” Smith told reporters on Friday. “But obviously they got it done, and I deleted it man. Sorry to the fans that were thinking otherwise.”

The consummate professional, Smith did take time to thank the Browns for a successful stint there and for getting a deal done with Detroit.

“(I) thank them, man, for just having me for two years,” Smith stated. “Well, a year and a half, and trading me here for basically giving me a chance to go do something great.”

Smith is questionable for Sunday night’s game in Houston after only practicing on Friday.

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Lions vs Texans: Final injury report and medical analysis

Lions vs Texans: Final injury report and medical analysis for the Week 10 matchup in Houston

I’m currently in Houston where it is warm (good) and very humid (bad). As a person who doesn’t like the feeling of having to take a shower every five minutes, I’m looking forward to watching the Lions in the air-conditioned comfort of the Texans indoor stadium. Technically, the roof is retractable so there is a chance it is opened to the night air, but it has only been open for one game since the 2021 season.

I’m also looking forward to seeing the fresh energy of multiple key Lions who got some non-injury-related time off – Brian Branch (ejection), Josh Paschal (shoulder mass excision), and Jameson Williams (suspension).

The Lions got a surprise downgrade this week with Taylor Decker who is out. The Lions haven’t played a backup OT yet this year (except for garbage time), so this could impact the game significantly. The rest of the Lions active starting roster on both sides of the ball is intact.

The Texans will be missing a star player on defense (Will Anderson), and likely their #1 WR on offense (Nico Collins). While Collins’ status is technically up-in-the-air, I have multiple reasons listed below why I suspect he won’t play.

The Texans #2 WR, Stefan Diggs is already out with an ACL. Thus, the Texans may be without their top three WR’s as there was a surprise downgrade during the week to #3 WR Tank Dell.

DETROIT LIONS

Taylor Decker OT (UL LP NP – Out) shoulder

Decker presumably hurt his shoulder in practice this week. Dan Campbell stated it’s probably not “something major” which is reassuring. Decker has a history of shoulder surgery in 2017 and it’s unknown if the current injury is related.

Jalen Reeves-Maybin LB (NP NP NP – Out) neck

The 3x NP is a bit concerning after being injured last game. It’s reassuring that he returned to the game late for the onside kick which suggests there were no signs of a spinal issue. Whether he is put on IR this weekend will tell us a lot.

Malcolm Rodriguez LB (NP NP NP – Out) ankle

Rodriguez suffered a scary-looking left ankle sprain early in the Titans game and missed the last game. There was optimism he might be available this weekend but that won’t happen. With 3x NP this week, next game vs the Jaguars is also in doubt.

Za’Darius Smith DE (NP NP FP – Questionable) personal

Smith got two days off to acclimate to his trade from the Browns. He hasn’t had a bye yet and the Lions did, so the Lions may give him a game off at some point. That game might be this Sunday.

Josh Paschal DE (FP FP FP – In) illness

Paschal is ready to go after missing two games for a benign shoulder mass excision.

Emmanuel Moseley CB (FP FP FP – Out) pec

Moseley’s tore his pec in August and has been out all year. His 21-day practice window opened November 6 which keeps him tracking along the 16-week timeline of CJ Gardner-Johnson’s pec tear of last year. Expect Moseley to be available around Thanksgiving.

Ifeatu Melifonwu S (FP FP FP – Out) ankle

Melifonwu has been out since the middle of preseason with a suspected Achilles issue. His 21-day practice window opened on November 6 which is a good sign that he’ll be available later this month.

Sione Vaki RB (FP FP FP – In) knee

Vaki hurt his knee late in the Titans game and missed the last game. Good news that it was minor.

Mekhi Wingo DT (FP FP FP – In) ankle

Wingo hurt his ankle presumably in practice last week and missed the last game. He is a valuable backup at the DT position.

Brodric Martin DT (FP FP FP – Out) knee

Martin is in his 2nd week of his 21-day practice window. Expect him to be moved to the active roster around November 20.

NOTABLES

Jameson Williams returns from his two game suspension.

HOUSTON TEXANS

Nico Collins WR (NP NP LP – Questionable) hamstring

The Texans top WR logically will be out for multiple reasons:
1)Hamstrings benefit from gradual ramp-up to prevent aggravation and a single LP is as steep a ramp as you can have.
2)He’s already missed four weeks to this injury so if he was going to try to play this Sunday, he would have started practicing on Wednesday. It’s not like those two extra rest days is making a significant difference in recovery for a game this weekend.

Tank Dell WR (UL UL LP – Questionable) back

If Dell can’t go, that would mean the Texans might be without their top 3 receivers on the year.

Will Anderson DE (NP NP NP – Out) ankle

On video, this star pass-rusher appeared to suffer a left high ankle sprain last game. Even mild high ankles can take a while to recover from, especially at the DE position (see Micah Parsons). Anderson leads the team with 7.5 sacks on the year so this is a big loss.

Derek Barnett DE (NP LP FP – In) calf/shoulder

Barnett is a part-timer at DE and has 2 sacks on the year. He likely will have a larger role with Anderson out.

NOTABLES

Stefan Diggs, the Texans 2nd-leading WR, is out for the year with a right ACL.

Mario Edwards, starting DT, is serving a suspension and is out for this game.

Kenyon Green, starting LG, is out for the year and was replaced by Kendrick Green last game.

Here is the full Texans report:

Bengals claim Isaiah Williams off waivers from the Lions

The Cincinnati Bengals claim rookie WR Isaiah Williams off waivers from the Lions

Isaiah Williams is a Lion no more. The rookie wideout was claimed off waivers by the Cincinnati Bengals on Friday, a day after Detroit waived him in a bit of a surprising move.

All players who are waived or released after the NFL trade deadline, which was Tuesday, are subject to waiver claims. The Bengals snatched up Williams after their 35-34 heartbreaking loss to Baltimore on Thursday night.

An undrafted rookie from Illinois, Williams earned a spot as the Lions’ backup slot receiver with a strong training camp and preseason. He played sparingly over the first nine weeks, catching two passes for six yards with Detroit.

Lions vs. Texans broadcast map: Where will the Week 10 game be on TV?

Lions vs. Texans broadcast map: Will the Wek 10 game be on TV?

The Lions are set to head to Houston for a Sunday Night Football clash with C.J. Stroud and the Texans. Kickoff is set for 8:20 P.M. EST Sunday night, November 10. The game will be nationally broadcast on NBC and also stream on Peacock.

Mike Tirico (play-by-play) and Cris Collinsworth (analyst) have the call with Melissa Stark on the sideline.

With the game on Sunday night, the game will obviously be aired across the country so there’s no map, per se, for this game. If you have NBC or Peacock, you can watch the game.

However, thanks to 506 Sports, you can also see what early games you will get in your area. For example, just about all of Michigan will get the Steelers-Commanders game in the early window on CBS, Eagles-Cowboys in the late window on CBS and Patriots-Bears as the single game on FOX. Check out the map for the game on in your area throughout the day Sunday.

Lions options for replacing injured Taylor Decker vs the Texans

The Detroit Lions options for replacing injured Taylor Decker vs the Texans if the veteran LT can’t play

The Detroit Lions appear poised to overcome some more injury-related adversity in the team’s Week 10 trip to Houston. Left tackle Taylor Decker is unlikely to play for Detroit in the Sunday night game after not practicing all week with a shoulder injury.

“I don’t see him practicing today,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said of Decker in his Friday morning press conference. “It’s about how he heals up. I don’t feel like this is something major, but we need to really see how he feels overthe next 48 hours.”

That’s not a promising sign for Decker’s availability against the Texans. If Decker is indeed out, the Lions lose a bedrock starter at left tackle for a game against one of the more aggressive defenses in the league.

Any Decker absence would require some serious scrambling for the Lions offensive line. With both starting guards, Graham Glasgow and Kevin Zeitler, being exclusively interior players, that means one of the depth tackles would get the nod.

Moving Penei Sewell from right to left

Switching All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell from his normal side to the left is one potential solution. It’s what the Lions did in Weeks 2 and 3 of the 2023 season when Decker was sidelined.

It’s not a perfect solution. Sewell had two of his three lowest-graded games of his career by PFF while playing at left tackle. He hasn’t taken a known practice rep on the left side since the summer of 2022 other than those weeks, as well.

The Lions would need to decide if it’s worth getting weaker at right tackle by moving Sewell to the left side, where he hasn’t been as effective. Especially in run blocking, the Lions lean heavily on Sewell being the best right tackle in the league.

Dan Skipper

Typically the Lions extra tackle and 6th lineman in heavy formations, Skipper has been the only other tackle active on game days for the vast majority of the season. His preseason and training camp playing left tackle specifically was a mixed bag.

The 6-foot-9 Skipper tends to play too tall in pass protection, a real issue against more athletic and smaller pass rushers. That’s not a major issue against Houston, which tends to play bigger ends outside of Will Anderson — whose status for Sunday is up in the air due to injury, too.

Interestingly, Skipper has performed better at right tackle than left throughout his career in preseason and brief opportunities in the regular season. If Sewell kicks to the left side, Skipper’s relative struggles on the right side could be exacerbated.

Colby Sorsdal

Now in his second season, Sorsdal has been a healthy scratch most of 2024 and has only played on special teams when active. The 2023 fifth-round pick repped exclusively at right tackle in training camp and preseason, stepping in when Sewell needed rest or else repping with the second- and third-team offenses.

Sorsdal did not have an encouraging summer, consistently struggling with the speed of the Lions defense in practices and the speed of the game in preseason matchups against Pittsburgh and Kansas City. Simply out of familiarity with the right side, Sorsdal would likely be the starting option there if Sewell flips sides.

Jamarco Jones

The veteran Jones is on the Lions practice squad after joining the team in preseason. He played well at left tackle in the exhibition matchup against the Chiefs and does have some limited NFL regular-season experience starting on the left side, though he’s primarily played right guard in his stops with the Seahawks and Titans.

Jones also has some live-game experience playing as an extra tackle, which could come in handy if Skipper is required to play as a starter. If he avoids penalties, which has been a struggle for him going back to his college days, Jones is the most effective pass blocker of the reserve options.

Giovanni Manu

Manu was drafted in the fourth round with the implicit knowledge that he was not ready, nor would be ready to play in 2024. That’s been made clear by multiple coaching comments.

The giant Canadian collegian has been a healthy scratch all season and was one of PFF’s lowest-graded pass blockers in the preseason. Those low grades passed the eye/sniff test based on the very technically raw Manu from what we witnessed in practices, too. He should be considered an emergency-option only.

 

Lions can continue to rewrite their history in Week 10 against the Texans

The Detroit Lions can avenge a fateful loss in the last meeting with the Texans and continue to rewrite their history in Week 10

Sunday night in Week 10 features a battle of two first-place teams, with the Houston Texans hosting the Detroit Lions. Both franchises are gunning for unprecedented postseason success in their respective histories as two of the teams that have never been to the Super Bowl.

The Lions are favored, as they should be. Injuries have hit the Texans offense as virulently as the bug has bitten the Lions defense; this looks to be a game about who can score more, not who can keep the other team from scoring as much.

This is a special matchup for me personally. Fans who have watched the Detroit Lions Podcast or heard me on the radio over the years know that I have frequently compared these current Lions and their rise up under Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes to my experience with the Texans surge from being a frustrating franchise to legit perennial contender over a decade ago. And I still believe very much in that, though they’ve gone about the rise in different ways.

I lived in Houston from 2010 to 2013, moving there from Michigan. Coming off some dark times as a Lions fan, it was fun and engaging to see a Texans team that finally buried years of mediocrity (or much worse) and rise up. A young core led by J.J. Watt, Arian Foster, Demeco Ryans, Connor Barwin, Johnathan Joseph and others (Glover Quin included) congealed nicely around a star-crossed veteran QB in Matt Schaub, who thrived to Pro Bowl status after some shaky times (sound familiar?). Those were fun, exciting and unprecedentedly successful teams in Houston.

But they stalled out short of their goals. Schaub started throwing pick-sixes, Watt and the secondary couldn’t stay healthy, Andre Johnson hit a wall, high-character “glue” vets like Eric Winston and Owen Daniels fell off just enough. Close but no victory cigar.

I covered their resurgent hiccup in 2017-2019 for Texans Wire, with Deshaun Watson breathing life back in before the bottom completely fell out for both him and the Texans. I still look back at those Houston teams from 2011-2018 with profound admiration in the way they established the Texans to a largely meh fanbase to that point. Everyone else who lives in my house still roots for the Texans…

…which made the last meeting between the two teams a tough one. Thanksgiving 2020. A bad Texans team (they were 3-7, with two of the wins over a Jaguars team that finished 1-15) came into Ford Field and beat the Lions over the head with turkey legs. Houston had an interim head coach at the time in Romeo Crennel, after Bill O’Brien got canned for a miserable start. Houston was 0-4 and didn’t have a single defensive takeaway, ranking dead last in points allowed and completion percentage. Crennel had stabilized things, but that was not a good Houston team at all.

Houston won that fateful game, 41-25. The score looked closer than the actual game, thanks to what many Lions fans derisively called “Stat Padford” at the end. It led me to write this anti-Matt Patricia piece in head-shaking anger.

That ugly loss on national television turned out to be the last straw for then-new Lions owner Sheila Hamp, who hadn’t yet dropped the “Ford” from her name. Patricia and GM Bob Quinn were fired that week, to the gleeful joy of the Lions fan base that hadn’t already tuned out on a lifeless, hopeless team.

We’ve come a very long way from those dismal depths in Detroit. The Lions are now the best team in the NFC and maybe the entire league. Detroit is winning games because of coaching, not to mention a loaded roster that has proven deep and versatile.

Should the Lions exorcise yet another past demon on Sunday night, it will sway even more of the very few remaining skeptics. This Detroit team has risen and will keep rising, hopefully beyond where the similar teams of Texans past could not.

Za’Darius Smith gets his Lions jersey number from a new teammate

Za’Darius Smith gets his familiar No. 99 jersey with the Lions and Brodric Martin changes his number

When new Lions defensive Za’Darius Smith makes his debut in Detroit’s Week 10 game in Houston on Sunday night, the veteran will be wearing his familiar jersey number. Smith, acquired in a trade on Tuesday from the Cleveland Browns, is listed on the Lions’ official roster as No. 99.

That number wasn’t immediately available when Smith joined the team. Defensive tackle Brodric Martin has been wearing No. 99, though Martin has yet to play in 2024. Martin, who wore No. 98 as a rookie in 2023, is now listed as No. 96. Injured DT Kyle Peko, who is out for the season, previously wore the 96 jersey.

No word on if Smith gave up anything to acquire the 99 jersey from Martin. The new No. 96 is in his second week of practicing after being designated to return from I.R.