Our 2025 Detroit Lions roster rankings from players 70 through 61 feature some of the biggest risers and fallers from last year.
We’ve reached Players 70-61 on our 2025 Detroit Lions roster ranking. When you figure in the 53 players who make the main roster, there are 16 players below that who make it to the practice squad—or the players essentially ranked 54 through 69. That’s at the heart of this list. Many of these players will stick around, and a few of them have a decent shot at the roster.
What’s perhaps most interesting about this interval of players is that it represents some of the biggest risers and the biggest fallers from last year’s list. Let’s dive in.
Previously:
70. DT Chris Smith (Highest ranking: 60, Lowest ranking: 78)
Smith jumps a couple spots from last year after playing in five games for the Lions last year. It was a mere 47 snaps—most of which came after serious injury problems on defense—but he got occasional praise from the coaching staff. Take, for example, Dan Campbell during last year’s training camp:
“Some of these guys have just consistently gotten better and I say it all the time, we don’t expect this. We just expect this, this slow steady climb. You get a little bit better every day because there is consistency to that. A guy like Chris Smith does that every day. There will be things on tape that you don’t see. He’s tying up guys. He does dirty work, and he does exactly what he’s coached, and he does it over and over and over again.”
Still at just 25 years old, Smith is a good player to have on the practice squad, and could even see playing time early while rookie Tyliek Williams adjusts to life in the NFL and Alim McNeill is injured.
69. EDGE Mitchell Agude (Highest: 62, Lowest: 75)
Agude, too, saw a tad bit of playing time last year amidst all the injuries, but he interestingly dropped a few spots this year after some optimism following a practice squad year in 2023. Perhaps some confidence was lost after he managed just 40 defensive snaps despite the plethora of injuries at defensive end last year.
68. WR Ronnie Bell (Highest: 54, Lowest: 82)
Last year’s ranking: N/A
Bell has the third-widest variance among our staff voting. Perhaps this represents a Michigan/Michigan State split in our writers for the former Wolverine.
Bell faces an uphill climb in a crowded receiver room, but he’s still an intriguing player. A seventh-round pick for the 49ers in 2023, Bell appeared in 26 games over two years in san Francisco. Working in his favor is the 125 special teams snaps he’s played at the NFL level, which is more than you can say for the pair of UDFAs this year.
67. DT Brodric Martin (Highest: 63, Lowest: 74)
Martin has the biggest drop of anyone on this year’s list, and it’s easy to see why. Going into last year, you could excuse his lack of production, because it was understood he was a long-term project out of Western Kentucky. And while two years is too few to determine he’s a lost cause, Detroit said a lot about his progress when they went out and signed Roy Lopez in free agency and drafted Tyleik Williams in the first round. Martin needs to show serious progress in training camp or he’ll be Detroit’s first Day 2 pick under Brad Holmes to be cut.
66. DT Myles Adams (Highest: 53, Lowest: 76)
Last year’s ranking: N/A
Adams was a late addition off the Seahawks practice squad last year, and immediately got some playing time—justifying his spot over both Martin and Smith. In total, he played 46 snaps and logged an additional nine in Detroit’s lone playoff game.
He, too, will have a tough time cracking the Lions’ roster given the defensive line additions this offseason, but it’s clear Detroit trusted him enough to be out there for the most important games of last season.
65. LB Zach Cunningham (Highest: 53, Lowest: 75)
Last year’s ranking: N/A
Cunningham is one of Detroit’s most recent additions, but he comes with far more defensive experience than most of Detroit’s’ special teams-heavy linebacker depth. Across eight seasons, Cunningham has started 86 games, but he’s played for four different teams over the last four seasons.
Cunningham could crack the roster if Detroit needs reliable reserves while Malcolm Rodriguez heals from his ACL injury, although the Lions may prefer to use that roster spot on a player that brings a little more juice to special teams.
64. OL Colby Sorsdal (Highest: 56, Lowest: 70)
Our second-biggest faller on this year’s list belongs to Sorsdal, who couldn’t find a positional home last season. They tried pushing him back to tackle for most of the season, but after starting three games in 2023, Sorsdal made an appearance in just a single game in 2024—stuck behind both Dan Skipper and Jamarco Jones by the end of the season.
63. TE Kenny Yeboah (Highest: 52, Lowest: 70)
Last year’s ranking: N/A
Yeboah immediately comes to Detroit with a chance to win the Lions’ TE3 job, but he’s firmly behind his main competition (Shane Zylstra) on this list. Only one POD staff member had Yeboah ranked higher.
That said, the four-year veteran has 33 games and two starts under his belt, and has a considerable amount of both run blocking and special teams (606 snaps) experience.
62. S Loren Strickland (Highest: 51, Lowest: 74)
Last year, Strickland was the second-lowest player on our list… then he proceeded to make the team’s 53-man roster. This year, he catapults right to the roster bubble.
Strickland is a a developing player with an athletic profile that lends itself to special teams. He only ended up playing seven games for Detroit last year (all special tams) and finished on the practice squad, but he enters 2025 with a year of experience in a crowded safety competition.
Speaking of which…
61. S Morice Norris (Highest: 55, Lowest: 75)
Norris is directly part of that competition for what is likely the fourth safety spot on the team (behind Kerby Joseph, Brian Branch, and Avonte Maddox).
Norris missed the 53-man roster after suffering a preseason injury, but he returned to the practice squad a month into the season, and eventually got the call up to the 53-man roster late in the season. He would end up having to play a career-high 22 defensive snaps in Detroit’s playoff game against the Commanders after Amik Robertson’s early injury. It was a tough position to put Norris in, but it was valuable experience for the rookie.