6 Lions players who did not live up to expectations during the 2024 season

The Lions had an excellent season overall, but these six players did not live up to expectations.

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4. S Ifeatu Melifonwu

Injuries have unfortunately been the headline of Melifonwu's NFL career, and this year was probably the worst in terms of timing with it being the final year of his contract. An ankle injury during training camp should have put him on IR to start the season (which Dan Campbell basically acknowledged). Then, as he was a nearing a return, a dislocated finger that was so bad he had to have surgery to fix it sidelined him until Week 16.

The cherry on top of the injury sundae for Melifonwu was a hamstring injury during the playoff loss to the Commanders, which helped leave the Lions embarrassingly thin at safety.

Melifonwu's breakthrough stretch late in the 2023 season had him garnering a little bit of breakout buzz heading into this season. But, as the saying does, "hurt guys stay hurt" and the first draft pick the Lions had from the Matthew Stafford trade is a poster boy for that.

3. DE Marcus Davenport

The Lions signed Davenport last March with the clear expectation he'd bring viable pass rush off the edge opposite Aidan Hutchison. In the season opener, he did exactly that. Then he missed Week 2 with a groin injury, and in Week 3 he suffered an arm/elbow injury when Cardinals offensive tackle Paris Johnson chopped down on his arm and he missed the rest of the season.

While this year's season-ending injury was random, and the result of a dirty play by an opposing player, Davenport's durability concerns go back further in his career, which is why the Lions got him on such a cheap one-year deal. Sometimes fliers on consistently injured players don't work out, and this one went about as un-ideally as it could have.

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