3 players on the Lions initial 53-man roster who won't last the whole season

1. James Houston

A sack in the preseason finale was enough for Houston to earn a spot on the 53-man roster, over a couple other edge rushers (Isaac Ukwu, Mitchell Agude) who were more worthy based on their overall preseason performance. A knee injury in the preseason opener that led to him missing the second preseason contest has to be noted, but Houston did not win a roster spot as much as get by the default of creating a "hard decision" with what he did in the preseason finale.

Taking SAM linebacker duties off of Mathieu Betts' plate was enough to push him well off serious consideration for the Lions' 53-man roster, but doing the same with Houston did not do so for him. Take away the names, and any perception of Houston's "body of work" after missing most of last season with an ankle injury, and there's no difference.

During the offseason, Lions coaches pointed to wanting guys who can do more than one thing. That standard isn't applied to Houston right now, unless he's going to cover kicks on special teams.

Ukwu and Agude are lurking on the practice squad, ready to take Houston's roster spot if he slips up with his details, suffers an injury or simply underachieves. The easy bet here is one of them takes it from him, perhaps pretty early in the season.