Detroit Lions: Post 2019 NFL Draft 53-man roster predictions
Wide Receiver:
Players In Camp- Deontez Alexander*, Danny Amendola, Travis Fulgham, Kenny Golladay, Andy Jones, Marvin Jones Jr, Chris Lacy, Tommylee Lewis, Brandon Powell*, Brandon Reilly*, Jonathan Duhart, Andre Wilson, Jared Ruth, Kyrion Parker
This position has a lot of players in competition for at most five spots, but it’s pretty easy to narrow down that list pretty quickly. There are three roster locks at the moment; Amendola, Golladay, and Jones Jr. That leaves just two spots open for 11 players to compete for.
Most likely, you can go ahead and knock out Lacy, Lewis, Duhart, Wilson, Ruth, and Parker from contention as none of them really offers anything the Lions don’t already have. That leaves Alexander, Fulgham, Jones, Powell, and Reilly fighting for the last two spots.
The reason I have asterisks (*) next to three of the wide receivers names is because those are all guys that reportedly run a 40 time in the 4.4s or lower. After the lack of separation by our receivers last year, we could see the Lions potentially look for speedy guys to fill in at least one of the last two spots.
Alexander showed last off-season that despite the impressive speed, he struggled to gain much separation from corners, and I doubt he makes the roster unless he shows a lot of improvement this year. Reilly is a name most probably don’t know and while he could make some noise, he skill set can be replaced by a better wide receiver fairly easily.
The last guy to run in the 4.4s is Powell, who was on the roster last year, and who should make the roster again as long as he can keep up what he did to the Green Bay Packers in week 17 and what he did last offseason. That leaves the last roster spot to be battled out for between Fulgham and Jones. They are both similar receivers so I would imagine it ultimately comes down to who shows out more and looks better in the preseason games, and is at this point a toss-up.