Detroit Lions: How many wide receivers will make the cut?

With the season right around the corner and way too many receivers currently on the Detroit Lions’ roster, who is going to make the cut?

NFL training camps started this week for the Detroit Lions as rookies were the first to report followed by the quarterbacks and injured players reporting this Thursday. It’s an exciting time for football fans as it appears that the season may actually start on time.

With training camp starting that means we’re going to have lots of competition between different player groups. One of the groups to watch closely is the wide receiver corps, who currently have 11 different receivers on the roster.

Right now, the Lions’ wide receivers depth chart includes Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones, Danny Amendola, Marvin Hall, Travis Fulgham, Geronimo Allison, Victor Bolden, Quintez Cephus, Geremy Davis, Chris Lacy and Tom Kennedy. As well as former cornerback recently turned wideout ,Jamal Agnew, joining the group too.

Realistically how many wide receivers will make the roster?

With the new NFL collective bargaining agreement  being agreed upon earlier this year, that may also affect how many wide receivers the Lions will ultimately decide to keep. The new CBA adds two additional players to both the game week roster size from 53 to 55 and game day roster from 46 to 48.

Traditionally an NFL team will keep about four, maybe five wide receivers on the team. With the possibility of one or two more on the practice squad. With the addition of two more players to both rosters I can see teams keeping up to six receivers on game week. With the possibility of two more on the practice squad.

Realistically. we could see a total of eight wide receivers for the Lions between both game week rosters and practice squad. Do I see that actually happening? No. It ultimately depends on how much the Lions believe either in the starters, or the overall health of the group.

Which bubble or fringe wide receivers will end up on the team?

It’s basically a given that the top three wide receivers will be Marvin Jones, Kenny Golladay and Danny Amendola. But who will be the next best receiver after those guys? Everyone knows that Marvin Hall, Chris Lacy and Travis Fulgham have been on the team for at least one year. So, they know the system a bit more than the others recently brought in.

Some would argue Marvin Hall should be the number four wide receiver after how well he performed last season when called upon, and playing with a second and third string quarterback. At one-point last season Hall was averaging around 40 yards a catch.  

The Detroit Lions signed wide receiver Geronimo Allison earlier in the off season. After he failed to live up to expectations for the Green Bay Packers the last few seasons. They drafted Quintez Cephus in the fifth round of this year’s NFL draft. These are the only new guys that I see realistically making the roster.

The rest of the wide receivers such as Tom Kennedy, Geremy Davis and Victor Boldin, they’ve been fringe practice squad players majority of their careers with little to no game action. With so much talent ahead of them it’s hard to see them making the roster, or even the practice squad. Unless they have some type of unbelievable training camp.

Also read: Detroit Lions wide receiver corps cracks PFF’s top ten

That still leaves us with the biggest wild card that nobody seems to know exactly what’s going on, Jamal Agnew. For about the last month it’s been rumored that Agnew will be transitioning to wide receiver this year. If that is true, I see it hard for him to make the roster as well. Even with him being a former All-Pro on special teams.

The best way for Jamal Agnew to make the team would be to keep his current position of corner back, and the team just continue to use him sporadically on offense. Possibly on jet sweep packages, or slant routes on mismatched line backers.

It’s going to very interesting over the next month or so to see who exactly stands out or who will falter and get cut before the season starts. There are a lot of wide receivers and not a lot of roster spots. We could have a surprise at the bottom of the chart, but to be honest I think it’s going to very predictable on who makes the team. It’s just a matter of how many spots the Detroit Lions actually want to keep.