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It’s Sunday afternoon as I’m writing this. The Detroit Lions finished their preseason with a nice comeback win over the Pittsburgh Steelers about 24 hours ago. That final exhibition game was the last chance for many players to either validate a spot on the Lions’ 53-man roster or play their way more onto the bubble.
The deadline comes Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. Based on the Lions sitting out 47 players from the Steelers game, it seems like nearly all of the 53 are already set. But those final 4-to-6 spots are really hard to project this year.
I wanted to sit back before I raced into the final 53-man projection. It’s dangerous to be a prisoner of the moment when the team emphasizes the totality of an offseason of work, and I tried to honor that. It’s not easy, and like projecting the NFL Draft each year, there’s an inevitable screwball or two (looking at you, Atlanta!) that makes the most well-thought plans go to the shredder.
Anyway, here’s the final 53-man roster projection for the Lions.