How have the Detroit Lions roster bubble players changed their likelihood to make the roster in Week 1 of training camp? Check out our Bubble Watch predictions.
The Detroit Lions have a lot of lingering decisions when it comes to their defensive roster. This offseason, the Lions made a ton of investments on that side of the ball, and, naturally, that means there will be a lot of player overturn.
If Week 1 of training camp is any indication, some of our preconceived notions about the defensive roster were not true. The play and the order of reps caused a big change in some of our opinions on the roster bubble players.
Here’s our prediction for the players on the defensive roster bubble, in Week 2 of our Bubble Watch series.
Edge defenders
- Presumed in: Aidan Hutchinson, Josh Paschal
- Marcus Davenport: 11 “IN” votes (no change)
- James Houston: 9 votes (down 2)
- Mathieu Betts: 5 votes (up 2)
- John Cominsky: 2 votes (down 8)
- Mitchell Agude: 1 votes (up 1)
The biggest fall here is for John Cominsky, who started camp with 10 of 11 of us thinking he was on the roster. Since then, he’s fallen to the third-team defense, well behind the likes of other bubble players, including Marcus Davenport, and Levi Onwuzurike.
Houston drops a couple spots, as it looks like he’s in a daily swapping with Mathieu Betts between the second and third-team defenses. It doesn’t help that Dan Campbell wasn’t exactly beaming with confidence when talking about Houston last week.
“He’s in shape. He knows he’s got to be able to handle the SAM linebacker position for us, and no different than what we just talked about, consistency. We have to be able to trust that he’s going to do what he needs to do and that whatever defense we call, he’s going to handle it mentally and we can trust that.”
Agude gets a single vote for the first time in this process, but after seeing some second-team edge reps in various spots, he may be a sleeper candidate to keep an eye on.
Defensive tackle
- Presumed in: DJ Reader, Alim McNeill, Brodric Martin
- Mekhi Wingo: 11 votes (no change)
- Levi Onwuzurike: 11 votes (up 1)
- Chris Smith: 0 votes (no change)
Onwuzurike gets the bump up to a unanimous in. The staff has been singing his praises, and they’ve rewarded his hard work with regular first-team reps. On top of staying healthy, Onwuzurike is starting to flash his versatility, lining up at just about every defensive line position this camp.
Linebackers
- Presumed in: Alex Anzalone, Jack Campbell, Derrick Barnes, Malcolm Rodriguez, Jalen Reeves-Maybin
- DaRon Gilbert: 0 votes (no change)
- Ben Niemann: 0 votes (no change)
No changes here. It will be interesting to see if newly-added linebacker Malik Jefferson works his way onto the roster bubble. He made a couple of plays during Monday’s practice.
Cornerbacks
- Presumed in: Carlton Davis, Terrion Arnold, Amik Robertson, Ennis Rakestraw, Brian Branch
- Emmanuel Moseley: 11 votes (up 1)
- Khalil Dorsey: 10 votes (no change)
- Steven Gilmore: 5 votes (up 2)
- Kindle Vildor: 4 votes (down 3)
Steven Gilmore has been stacking days together, notching a trio of pass deflections on Saturday and following it up with another strong performance on Monday. Given he managed to stay on the roster all of 2023, the staff clearly likes his developmental potential.
On the other hand, it’s getting tougher to justify a spot for Kindle Vildor. The veteran brings a lot of experience to the table, but he’s dropping down the depth chart in practice and hasn’t displayed the special teams skills necessary to win a reserve spot.
Safety
- Presumed in: Kerby Joseph, Ifeatu Melifonwu
- C.J. Moore: 9 votes (down 1)
- Brandon Joseph: 2 votes (up 2)
Brandon Joseph deserves some credit for hanging around his rookie season, but I think this shift is more about how the Lions have been treating C.J. Moore. The former special teams standout appears to have lost his spot as the key personal protector role on the punt squad (to last year’s protector Jalen Reeves-Maybin), and on Monday, Moore was repping with the third team at safety—behind Joseph.
Kicker
- OFF OF BUBBLE WATCH: Michael Badgley (placed on IR)
- Jake Bates: 11 votes (up 10 votes)
As the only kicker on the roster after Badgley’s unfortunate injury, Bates gets the unanimous “IN” votes. That said, the Lions seem likely to eventually add competition, and former Lions kicker Riley Patterson just became available . Hmmmmmm.
Long snapper
- Scott Daly: 10 votes (no change)
- Hogan Hatten: 1 vote (no change)
There hasn’t been much reporting on the long snapper battle, so no changes this week.