Tag: C.J. Moore

Lions place John Cominsky on I.R., add receiver to practice squad

Lions place DT John Cominsky on I.R., add receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones to the practice squad

As has been the expectation for weeks, the Detroit Lions have placed defensive lineman John Cominsky on the injured reserve list.

Cominsky tore a tendon in his knee during the early portion of training camp and is expected to miss most of the season. The Lions held off on placing Cominsky on I.R. until after roster cutdowns, not using one of the two designated-to-return spots ahead of this week’s roster cutdowns. Those went to DT Brodric Martin and CB Emmanuel Moseley.

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The Lions also officially added wideout Donovan Peoples-Jones to the practice squad, a move that was reported on Wednesday but didn’t happen until Thursday morning. Because Peoples-Jones is a vested veteran and the Lions already had the maximum of six vets on the practice squad, Detroit had to release safety CJ Moore from the practice squad to accommodate Peoples-Jones.

The Lions still have one open spot on the practice squad, and it cannot be used on a veteran. However, the team is expected to sign DT Kyle Peko to the active roster before Week 1 to fill the void left by Martin and Cominsky being on I.R.

Lions minicamp offers young safeties a chance to prove themselves

Lions minicamp offers young safeties like Brandon Joseph, Chelen Garnes and Loren Strickland a chance to prove themselves

This week’s mandatory minicamp at the Detroit Lions training facility in Allen Park is the only time between the end of the season and the start of training camp when all the Lions players will be required to be in attendance. Several of those players are recovering from injuries and won’t be able to participate, however.

Two of those are starting safeties, Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch. Both are in the process of rehabilitating from off-season leg surgeries and their absence in the secondary was particularly noticeable during the recent OTA sessions.

Joseph is the team’s top coverage safety, largely responsible for the single-high looks and deep-field roaming. Branch was outstanding as the Lions’ slot DB as a rookie, and he does pull some duty as a free safety in some packages, too. Without them in the lineup, the coverage issues with the rest of the safety room were starkly evident in last week’s practice.

Ifeatu Melifonwu is an effective starter as a box safety, but range and anticipation in coverage are not where he wins. He’s more of an attack dog, at his best blitzing and aggressively playing the run and routes in front of him. The arrow is pointing up for Melifonwu, but his limitations in man coverage and more split-safety looks were exacerbated without Branch and Kerby Joseph playing with him.

Brandon Joseph, a 2023 UDFA from Notre Dame, was the other starter with Melifownu last week. Known for his coverage ability in college, Joseph is one of a few young safeties who could seize opportunities in minicamp with the injuries above them on the depth chart.

For Joseph and 2024 undrafted rookies Chelen Garnes and Loren Strickland, there will be considerable reps to show what they can do. Veteran CJ Moore is back after missing 2023 due to a gambling suspension, and he’ll also have chances to prove he can be more than just a special teams asset–his primary role in his first tour of duty in Detroit.

It’s the thinnest position on the roster–on paper, anyway. Garnes, Joseph and Strickland could help ameliorate some serious depth concerns at safety for the Lions. Garnes, from Wake Forest, is more in the Melifonwu mold, a strong tackler with a powerful build and good closing burst to the ball carrier in the run game. He was the second-team safety behind Melifonwu during last week’s practice that was open to the media.

Strickland was the same sort of player during his college career at Ball State. It can be difficult for those types of players to make a positive impact in practices where tackling and hitting aren’t permitted. Even so, the opportunity and minicamp reps are there for someone to step up and seize a bigger role in the Lions defense.

NFL reinstates 4 former Lions suspended in 2023 for gambling violations

The four were all released by the Lions after their violations of the league’s gambling rules came to light

Around this time a year ago, the news broke that Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams was going to be suspended for six games for violating the NFL’s rules on gambling. Williams wound up being reinstated after sitting out the first four games of the 2023 NFL season.

Yet Williams wasn’t the only Lions player who ran afoul of the NFL’s rules on gambling. Four other players — wide receiver Quintez Cephus, safety C.J. Moore, defensive tackle Demetrius Taylor and linebacker Rashod Berry —were suspended for a full season. Detroit quickly dumped them all from the roster.

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All four of the suspended ex-Lions were formally reinstated by the NFL this week. They are now free agents eligible to sign with any team and play in 2024. Don’t expect any interest from the Lions in any of the players, but Moore was one of the league’s better special teams aces before his suspension and could generate some interest.

 

Quick reaction and impact of the Lions’ gambling-related suspensions

Breaking down the impact of the Lions’ gambling-related suspensions and roster moves

The Detroit Lions got hit with some major adversity on Friday. The NFL suspended four Lions players for various lengths of time for violating league rules on gambling.

Most notable among the suspensions is the six-game sentence meted out to wide receiver Jameson Williams. Safety C.J. Moore and WRs Stanley Berryhill and Quintez Cephus were also suspended. Berryhill received six games, while Cephus and Moore were suspended indefinitely with a minimum of one year.

The Lions released Cephus and Moore immediately.

It’s a tough blow to the Lions and the considerable positive vibes around the team. Here are a few thoughts on how it impacts the Lions and the players involved.

 

NFL’s desire for gambling revenue presents an impossible “responsibility” schism

The NFL wants as much gambling revenue as possible, and it’s willing to sacrifice its players for the right perception of purity.

On April 19, the National Football League released a statement confirming its involvement with the Coalition for Responsible Sports Betting Advertising. The Coalition was touted as “a voluntary association of sports leagues and media entities committed to doing their part to help ensure a responsible approach to sports betting advertising.”.

Consisting of the National Football League, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, National Basketball Association, Women’s National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, NBCUniversal, and FOX, the Coalition “has committed to implement and maintain consumer protection policies consistent with the following six principles:”

  • Sports Betting Should be Marketed Only to Adults of Legal Betting Age
  • Sports Betting Advertising Should Not Promote Irresponsible or Excessive Gambling or Degrade the Consumer Experience
  • Sports Betting Advertisements Should Not Be Misleading
  • Sports Betting Advertisements Should Be In Good Taste
  • Publishers Should Have Appropriate Internal Reviews of Sports Betting Advertising
  • Publishers Should Review Consumer Complaints Pertaining to Sports Betting Advertising

Two days later, the NFL had another press release to put out. It involved the suspension of five players for various violations of the league’s gambling policy.

Quintez Cephus and C.J. Moore of the Detroit Lions, and Shaka Toney of the Washington Commanders, are suspended indefinitely through at least the conclusion of the 2023 season for betting on NFL games in the 2022 season. These players may petition for reinstatement at the conclusion of the 2023 season.

Stanley Berryhill and Jameson Williams of the Lions are suspended for the team’s first six regular season games of the 2023 season. These players are eligible to participate in all offseason and preseason activities, including preseason games. The suspensions will take effect at the final roster cutdown.

The gambling policy, which is annually reviewed with all NFL personnel, including players, prohibits anyone in the NFL from engaging in any form of gambling in any club or league facility or venue, including the practice facility.

A league review uncovered no evidence indicating any inside information was used or that any game was compromised in any way.

“As a result of an NFL investigation, it came to our attention that a few of our players had violated the league’s gambling policy,” Lions general manager Brad Holmes said in a statement. “These players exhibited decision making that is not consistent with our organizational values and violates league rules. We have made the decision to part ways with Quintez and C.J. immediately. We are disappointed by the decision making demonstrated by Stanley and Jameson and will work with both players to ensure they understand the severity of these violations and have clarity on the league rules moving forward.”

Williams’ representatives released his own statement, detailing the specifics of the violation.

According to a report by ESPN.com’s Eric Woodyard, several members of the Lions’ staff were dismissed in March for violations of league gambling policy.

Add their names to the list started by former Falcons and current Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Calvin Ridley, who was given a year-long suspension in March, 2022, and you have quite the assembly of suspended players and fired staffers at a time when the NFL is moving at an accelerated rate to benefit as much as possible from the burgeoning sports betting market — especially through advertising revenue.

In August 2021, the league announced agreements with FOX Bet, BetMGM, PointsBet, and WynnBET to become Approved Sportsbook Operators for the 2021 NFL season. These agreements make all four operators eligible to purchase NFL in-game commercial units and other select NFL media inventory. This after announcing agreements with sportsbook partnerships with Caesars Entertainment, DraftKings and FanDuel that April.

“We are pleased to announce this select group as Approved Sportsbook Operators,” said Nana-Yaw Asamoah, Vice President of Business Development for the NFL. “Along with our three Official Sports Betting Partners, this group of operators will help the League to engage fans in responsible and innovative ways this season as the sports betting landscape continues to evolve.”

Put simply, the NFL is trying to generate as much money as possible from these partnerships, with the obvious understanding that they can’t put a stink on the league from an integrity perspective.

When Pete Rozelle suspended Paul Hornung in 1963 for violations of the gambling policy, it was a very different world. Any hint of gambling brought an ardent and attendant fear that professional football would be overrun by those looking to compromise the purity of competition, Packers head coach Vince Lombardi told Hornung to “stay at the foot of the cross.” Hornung was not asked to do so at a time when the NFL had removed the cross, and replaced it with a sports book.

So, it is easy to assume that the NFL’s sudden and startling enforcement of these issues is a counter to the inevitable questions that come with these partnerships. The inverse example might be Major League Baseball, which was a cesspool of fixed plays and games in the late 1800s and early 1900s. When the Black Sox were banned for life after fixing the 1919 World Series, new Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis exacted such a harsh punishment because he wanted there to be no question about the game’s aboveboard status.

It didn’t quite go that way (ask Pete Rose about it), but the perception beat reality for a long time.

Similarly, the NFL is looking to balance a heavy involvement with gambling while putting forth a perception of purity. And if it has to sacrifice its own people, no matter how large or small the infraction, it appears to be perfectly comfortable in doing just that.

Detroit Lions salary cap update after aggressive free agency moves

The Detroit Lions continue to make one impactful move after another, and with a couple of restructures, the Lions salary cap is looking good.

It has been one busy offseason for the Detroit Lions. More than most of us are accustomed to, especially in recent memory. General Manager Brad Holmes took talent acquisition to a whole level bringing one playmaker after another. What makes these moves so shrewd is, from the naked eye, they did not overpay for any of these acquisitions.

There is a lot to catch up on after our breakdown from the initial free agency wave, so we will go ahead and look at the latest moves the Lions made the past few days.

Holmes came in with a plan to take the Lions biggest weakness this past season, flipped it on its heels, and made it a force to be reckoned with the signing of Chauncey Gardner-Johnson. The exact cap details haven’t been released, but the Lions were able to sign him to a reasonable one-year, $8,500,000 deal.

Emmanuel Mosley, C.J. Moore, and Michael Badgley’s contract details were released, with Mosley counting $4,294,118 against the cap, Moore’s cap hit at $1,800,000, and Badgley sitting at $1,092,500 cap hit.

With no position to little, Holmes is bringing competition at long snapper signing veteran Jake McQuaide, who has a cap hit of $1,092,500.

To give the Lions extra wiggle room in the salary cap department, they worked out contract restructures with Romeo Okwara and Jack Fox. Okwara’s was a renegotiation versus a restructure, which freed up nearly $9 million in salary cap space, with a cap hit only at $5,647,059 showing how much he wants to be in Detroit. Fox’s restructure freed up $1.6 million and now only counts $1,965,000 towards the salary cap.

Before all the moves were made, the Lions sat at $18.4 million in cap space, but now they have increased it to nearly $22.4 million, according to Over the Cap. Also, they have increased their effective cap spending from $8.3 million to $14 million, giving them the extra breathing room to make depth signings and sign their rookie class.

The Lions have been very busy this offseason making one impactful move after another. They have brought in players who can contribute immediately while keeping players who played a vital role in the last year’s success while keeping the salary cap very manageable with effective contract negotiations. The Lions have put the league on notice that they are ready to compete with anyone and take the next leap forward to great and continued success.

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Lions bring back safety C.J. Moore on a 2-year deal

Lions bring back safety and special teams ace C.J. Moore on a 2-year deal

The Lions are bringing back another key piece of the special teams units. Per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Lions have agreed to re-sign safety C.J. Moore.

Moore visited with the New England Patriots during the week but returns to the Lions. It’s a 2-year deal worth a reported $4.5 million for the reserve safety. There are incentives for an additional $1.25 million as well.

He’s best known for his successful long run on a fake punt last season, though Moore has been a staple of Detroit’s special teams for most of the last four seasons. In that time, the 27-year-old has played under 350 total defensive snaps.

NFL free agency: Rumors and reports on the remaining Lions on the market

NFL free agency: Rumors and reports concerning the Lions from 2022 who remain available in free agency

The Detroit Lions currently have 13 unrestricted free agents that are free to sign with other teams.

As news floods in about all of the trades, signings, and visits around the league, it’s hard to keep track of where these former Lions are headed next.

EDGE Austin Bryant‘s name has not appeared in any headlines as of yet. The 2019 fourth-round pick was benched last season in favor of Julian Okwara and rookie James Houston.

Wide receiver DJ Chark has drawn interest from several teams, including the Cleveland Browns, New York Giants and Carolina Panthers. While he is still expected to test the market, Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press reported that there is a chance that Chark returns as a Lion in 2023.

Cornerback Mike Hughes is reported to have a visit scheduled with the Atlanta Falcons. The versatile cornerback had six starts for the Lions at both the outside and nickel positions.

Running back Justin Jackson has not garnered any interest so far in free agency. He did well as Detroit’s third running back last season.

Offensive lineman Tommy Kraemer is another exclusive-rights free agent who the Lions opted not to bring back. He was sidelined with a back injury for the entirety of the 2022 season, so his health may be a factor into why he has not re-signed. As an undrafted rookie in 2021, he provided reliable depth for the interior offensive line.

Safety C.J. Moore excitedly rejoined the Lions mid-season after spending some time with the Houston Texans. He was the heart and soul of Detroit’s special teams unit and will likely be looking for that role elsewhere. He recently met with the New England Patriots, who recent signed fellow former Lions special teamer Chris Board.

Cornerback Amani Oruwariye was once thought to be a sure starter for the Lions. Instead, he rode the bench for most of 2022 and entered free agency without any suitors. He has not been linked to any teams yet in free agency.

Cornerback Bobby Price was not tendered as a restricted free agent and is now free to sign with any team. He suffered a knee injury in 2022 and will likely need to wait until he’s cleared before signing with a team. Birkett also reported that Price will be in the Detroit area for a checkup on his knee.

Quarterback Nate Sudfeld was the lone backup for Jared Goff last season and now will test the free agent market. He also has no noteworthy news so far in free agency.

Offensive lineman Dan Skipper was a feel-good story for the Lions as he performed well as a starter in place of the injured Jonah Jackson. He is yet another free agent in Detroit who has not met with any teams in the past few days.

Linebacker Josh Woods was a team captain and special teams ace last season. He has no ties to any other teams at this time.

 

 

Dan Campbell expects more from Ifeatu Melifonwu vs. the Bears

Melifonwu is in line to start for the second straight week at safety

Ifeatu Melifonwu is in line to get his second straight start at safety for the Detroit Lions. Head coach Dan Campbell all but ruled out regular starter DeShon Elliott with a shoulder injury on Friday for Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears.

Melifonwu’s starting debut against the Carolina Panthers did not go well. While the second-year DB led the Lions in tackles, he also missed several opportunities and was consistently out of position in run defense.

Campbell expressed some confidence in Melifonwu heading into the Week 17 matchup with Chicago.

“Well, I would anticipate we’d see him react quicker,” Campbell said of Melifonwu. “I think we’re going to see a player that sees it faster and triggers faster, and he knows what we’re looking for just from what we talked about, the intensity, the aggressiveness. So, yeah, I anticipate we’ll see a better version of Iffy.”

Campbell was also asked if reserve safety C.J. Moore would take on a bigger role, but the head coach downplayed that potential.

“Yeah, I think the plan would be to stay with Iffy more this week – to go that route and here’s why and a lot of that came back to – here’s some of the plus and minus with C.J. is, it would be great, but also man, he’s such a vital part of what we do on teams. He’s a four-core player and the more strain you put on him defensively it takes away from the core and that’s really where he – where he really excels.”

Campbell continued,

“And so, I think it’s – that’s why we want to give Iffy more of a go and we feel like that gives us our best chance as a team to keep Moore there. Let Iffy get another week under his belt here and see where it goes.”

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Dan Campbell not optimistic Lions S DeShon Elliott will be able to play vs. Panthers

Elliott left the win over the Jets with a shoulder injury

While it’s not official yet, it sure sounds like the Detroit Lions will be without starting safety DeShon Elliott when the team visits the Carolina Panthers on Saturday. Detroit head coach Dan Campbell was not optimistic about Elliott’s availability when asked about the safety during his Tuesday press conference.

“I would say right now he’s looking like he probably won’t be able to make it,” Campbell said of Elliott.

The veteran safety left the Week 15 win over the New York Jets with a shoulder injury and did not return.

When asked if it was going to be a longer-term injury, Campbell kept his response vague.

“It’s hard to say that,” Campbell stated. “As of right now, it looks like — it doesn’t look very promising. But there again, we’ll see how he feels every day.”

Special teams ace C.J. Moore took over for Elliott at safety and figures to do so again in Carolina if Elliott cannot play.

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