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The Detroit Lions are rolling into Week 1 with just four wide receivers on the active 53-man roster. Of the foursome, only Jameson Williams stands above 6-foot-1 and only Amon-Ra St. Brown tops 190 on the weight scale.
The Lions are very small at wideout, no doubt about it. To that end, the Lions added some veteran bulk to the practice squad. GM Brad Holmes signed Tim Patrick, Allen Robinson and Donovan Peoples-Jones to the practice squad after roster cutdowns. Peoples-Jones, who didn’t make the Lions 53-man roster despite being re-signed this offseason, is the smallest of that group. He’s 6-2 and 208.
In his post-cutdown press conference, Holmes expressed his confidence in the receiving corps despite the lack of size and relative inexperience.
“We have confidence in what we have,” Holmes stated. “I would say, obviously, we’ve already addressed that we wanted (Broncos WR) Josh (Reynolds) back on the team, but you can’t get everybody that you want back. But we felt good about the competition that we had going forward.”
Holmes acknowledged that losing second-year WR Antoine Green to injury was an issue. The Lions waived Green with injury designation earlier in August. Holmes believed the 2023 seventh-rounder was poised to win the job of the X receiver.
“I think the unfortunate part happened was right when Antoine Green’s injury came, I felt that’s right when he started showing the growth and that he was about to take the lead in it, in my opinion. But unfortunately, that happened.”
Green, all 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds of him, had edged ahead of Daurice Fountain and Peoples-Jones in terms of first-team practice reps before suffering a severe concussion in the Lions’ first preseason game. Green took an injury settlement off the Lions I.R.
Now the vets on the practice squad will battle it out to be a potential game-day elevation, or perhaps moved onto the 53-man roster if things break their way.