Detroit Lions waive five players ahead of rookie minicamp

Ahead of this weekend’s rookie minicamp, the Detroit Lions have waived five players.

Simple math said the Detroit Lions were going to cut some players before this weekend’s rookie minicamp. On Tuesday morning the team announced five players have been waived–linebacker Tavante Beckett, outiside linebacker Rashod Berry, cornerback Parnell Motley and tight end Matt Sokol and tight end Jared Pinkney.

Pinkney was waived with an injury settlement.

The Lions entered the draft with 78 of 90 roster spots filled. With eight draft picks coming in, that left room for four of the 12 undrafted free agents they’ve reportedly agreed to terms with. With an overflow at certain positions now (tight end, edge rusher…), these five cuts aren’t surprising.

There are no salary cap implications, good or bad, from waiving Beckett, Berry, Motley, Sokol and Pinkney. All five played little last season, with Pinkney drawing a start at tight end late due to how depleted the tight end room was.

Detroit Lions pre-rookie minicamp roster shuffling isn’t over

The Lions agreed to terms with two of their draft picks on Monday, Aidan Hutchinson and Chase Lucas. That leaves six–Jameson Williams, Josh Paschal, Kerby Joseph, James Mitchell, Malcolm Rodriguez and James Houston–to get deals in place, before the start of rookie minicamp on Friday if at all possible.

Deals with some of the aforementioned undrafted free agents could become official soon, as a residual of the five cuts on Tuesday.

But more cuts of currently rostered players are surely coming, unless many of the UDFAs are declared rookie minicamp invites coming in on a tryout basis. A few (Obinna Eze, Kevin Jarvis, Derrick Deese Jr., etc.) will get notable reported guaranteed money from the Lions in their deals as undrafted players, so they won’t be coming to rookie minicamp on a tryout.

However it ultimately works out, the Lions’ 90-man roster heading into the start of full offseason work in a couple weeks is starting to take shape.