The Detroit Lions added to their wide receiver room, inking former Wolverine Ronnie Bell to a futures deal.
The Detroit Lions have wasted no time in preparing their roster for the 2025 season. They’ve already signed 11 of their former practice squad players to futures deals , as well as signing defensive back Morice Norris back for another year. On Tuesday, the Lions added their first player who spent the 2024 season on a different team, signing wide recevier Ronnie Bell to a futures deal.
Many of you may remember Bell from his college career at the University of Michigan. There, Bell was a three-year starter for the Wolverines. His best season was his final one in 2022, where he pulled in 62 catches, 889 yards and four touchdowns.
Since then, Bell was drafted in the seventh round of the 2023 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers . He beat the odds and made the 49ers’ 53-man roster his rookie year, then proceeded to play every single game for San Francisco that season—although he was mostly on special teams. He finished his rookie season with six catches for 68 yards and three touchdowns to go with an additional 10 punt returns for 70 yards.
✅ First NFL catch
✅ First NFL TDThe 7th-round pick Ronnie Bell gives the @49ers the lead @Ronnieb_8 #NYGvsSF on Prime Video
Also available on #NFLPlus https://t.co/qDMTitTfP0 pic.twitter.com/Ts2t7TluPV— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2023
His second season in the NFL didn’t go quite as well. While he made the 53-man roster once again, he was waived in late November and spent the rest of the season on San Francisco’s practice squad. He made just nine game appearances for the 49ers, and was nearly taken off special teams entirely (13 total snaps). Despite playing 113 snaps on offense in 2024, he caught just a single pass for 10 yards all year.
At 6-foot, 190 pounds, Bell is a smaller-sized receiver, but brings strong speed and explosiveness to the Lions’ roster:
Ronnie Bell was drafted with pick 253 of round 7 in the 2023 draft class. He scored a 8.20 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 551 out of 3062 WR from 1987 to 2023. https://t.co/a8tA49xgSD pic.twitter.com/590pgBNFr9
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 29, 2023
He’ll join the following Lions receivers who are currently signed for 2025: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Kalif Raymond, Antoine Green, and Tom Kennedy. Wide receivers facing free agency in March include Tim Patrick and Allen Robinson, while Donovan Peoples-Jones and Maurice Alexanders are street free agents who can sign anywhere immediately because they ended the season on the practice squad.