Our staff makes their final roster predictions for the bubble players on the Detroit Lions offense.
It’s time to take one final look at the players on the Detroit Lions ’ roster bubble. As we near the 53-man roster cuts deadline at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, our staff took all of the information over the past month to make some roster predictions. That includes training camp performance, preseason performance, and what the staff is saying about each of the players.
Without further ado, here are our roster predictions for the players on the bubble on offense. Defense will come later in the day.
Quarterback:
- Assumed in: Jared Goff, Hendon Hooker
- Nate Sudfeld: 8 “IN” votes (up 8)
Not only did Sudfeld rest during the preseason finale, he also got a pretty significant endorsement from coach Dan Campbell earlier in the week.
“Nate right now has the upper hand because he’s played more. He’s been in it more, he’s seen it more,” Campbell said. “So with that, that would tell you there’s a good chance you could keep three (quarterbacks). Am I going to say that’s 100 percent certain right now? No. But that’s kind of what you look at.”
Did Hooker do enough in the preseason finale to change Campbell’s mind? Seems unlikely, but I wouldn’t count it out completely, and three of our staffers believe Sudfeld is gone.
Running back:
- Assumed in: Jahmyr Gibbs, David Montgomery, Sione Vaki
- Craig Reynolds: 11 votes (no change)
- Jermar Jefferson: 0 votes (down 1)
- Zonovan Knight: 0 votes (down 1)
With Reynolds avoiding a major injury and many of us buying into a three-quarterback situation, it often came at the expense of a fifth running back. Now our staff is unanimous in keeping just four at the position, despite both Jefferson and Jake Funk finishing the preseason strong.
Wide receiver:
- Assumed in: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Kalif Raymond
- Isaiah Williams: 11 votes (up 1)
- Daurice Fountain: 1 votes (up 1)
- Donovan Peoples-Jones: 0 votes (down 5)
- Kaden Davis: 0 votes (down 2)
- Maurice Alexander: 0 votes (no change)
- Tom Kennedy 0 votes (no change)
Unsurprisingly, Peoples-Jones took one of the biggest falls of the week. After Antoine Green’s injury, everything was lined up for Peoples-Jones to assume the WR-X position, but he just didn’t step up and win the job.
Isaiah Williams is now a unanimous “IN” following another strong preseason performance.
Tight end:
- Assumed in: Sam LaPorta, Brock Wright
- Parker Hesse: 11 votes (up 1 vote)
- Shane Zylstra: 10 votes (up 1)
- James Mitchell: 1 vote (no change)
- Sean McKeon: 0 votes (no change)
Our staff assumes that Hesse’s role as the primary fullback this season is enough to warrant him a spot on the roster. Beyond that, it’s mainly Zylstra over Mitchell, with only one staffer giving the edge to Detroit’s 2022 fifth-round pick.
Interestingly enough, the entire staff has opted to keep four tight ends.
Offensive tackle:
- Assumed in: Taylor Decker, Penei Sewell, Giovanni Manu
- Colby Sorsdal: 11 votes (no change)
- Dan Skipper: 10 votes (down 1)
There hasn’t been much movement at the offensive tackle position for a few weeks now, and for good reason. Skipper, when healthy, is clearly the team’s preferred OT3, while Sorsdal is both versatile and developing.
Interior offensive line:
- Assumed in: Kevin Zeitler, Frank Ragnow, Graham Glasgow
- Kayode Awosika: 11 votes (up 2)
- Christian Mahogany: 2 votes (down 9)
- Michael Niese: 0 votes (down 2)
- Kingsley Eguakun: 0 votes (no change)
While it looked like Mahogany may be trending in the right direction to come off the non-football injury list last week, Campbell’s comments seem to suggest there’s no urgency to do that.
“(He’s) just trying to get his legs back under him, his conditioning, strength level and he’s trending the right way,” Campbell said. “I can’t give you a timetable but he’s doing well. It’s good to have him here.”
After a couple of strong weeks, both Niese and Eguakun have fallen back to Earth a bit. That said, they’ve performed well enough that I’m surprised they didn’t garner at least one “IN” vote.