Lions place wide receiver DJ Chark on IR amid slew of roster moves

Amid a bunch of roster moves on Saturday, the Detroit Lions have placed wide receiver DJ Chark on IR.

On Thursday, when was seen in a walking boot, Lions wide receiver DJ Chark opened the door to an absence that would extend a fair amount beyond this week as he was lined up to miss a third straight game.

On Saturday, amid a bunch of other roster moves, the Lions placed Chark on IR. So he will miss at least the next four games. Cornerback Bobby Price was also placed on IR.

Here is the list of moves the Lions made on Saturday, including a couple promising additions to the defense.

• PLACED ON RESERVE/INJURED: WR DJ Chark, CB Bobby Price
• SIGNED TO ACTIVE ROSTER FROM PRACTICE SQUAD: WR Maurice Alexander
• ELEVATED FROM PRACTICE SQUAD: K Michael Badgley, WR Brandon Zylstra
• ACTIVATED FROM PUP: DL Josh Paschal, CB Jerry Jacobs

DJ Chark going to IR headlines Detroit Lions’ Saturday roster moves

Alexander was the Lions’ primary return man in Week 5. He takes the 53-man roster spot of defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike, whose season is over after back surgery.

Badgley has apparently beaten out even more recent signing Sam Ficken to do the kicking for the Lions this week. At some point someone should be permanently placed on the active roster, assuming there are no other outside kicker options that surface who could be regarded as better.

Zylstra is simply an extra body at wide receiver to possibly be up active for Sunday’s game.

Paschal, the Lions’ second-round pick in April, is lined up to make his NFL debut Sunday against Dallas. The defensive line can certainly use whatever help it can get.

Jacobs emerged nicely in the Lions’ secondary as an undrafted rookie last year, before suffering a torn ACL last December. How he fits into the current cornerback depth chart will be interesting, as a candidate along with Amani Oruwariye and Will Harris (who is listed as questionable for Sunday with a hip injury) to start opposite Jeff Okudah.

But headliner of these moves is Chark. He had a pretty disappointing start to his Lions’ tenure before his ankle injury, since training camp anyway, and now he’ll miss at least six games with the injury.