If only intangibly, since to be entirely frank his on-field production wasn't great, the Detroit Lions' wide receiving corps took a hit this week with Marvin Jones stepping away to handle a personal family matter.
In terms of accounting for Jones' absence, and with a spot on the active roster open now, the Lions had Tom Kennedy back in the building for a visit on Wednesday. Re-signing him would be a boring move, but the Lions don't need to make an earth-shattering move to fill a depth spot.
Jones missed Week 7 against the Ravens due to the aforementioned personal matter, or least something along that line since it was labeled as an absence due to a personal situation. The Lions' five active wide receivers were the one you'd pretty much expect, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Josh Reynolds, Jameson Williams, Kalif Raymond and Antoine Green. On the practice squad at the position is Dylan Drummond, Maurice Alexander and Daurice Fountain.
Dan Campbell said exactly what you'd expect about current state of Lions' WR room
Before Thursday's practice, given the proximity of next Tuesday's trade deadline, head coach Dan Campbell was asked about replacing Jones. As could have been expected, via Lions Wire, he started with an acknowledgement of Jones before getting into the state of the wide receiver room.
Certainly appreciate Marvin and what he brought to the table,” Campbell said . “Wish him the best of luck and he’s always welcome here.”
"We’re doing pretty good in the receiver room,” Campbell said. “We’ve got the five that were up last week. We’ve got some young guys there on the (practice) squad that have been practicing and working. So we feel pretty good.”
Campbell seemed to dismiss any idea the Lions could trade for a wide receiver between now and next Tuesday afternoon. Not that he would have said anything definite, or able to be read into, on that front anyway. He's also going to say exactly what he said about the current wide receiver group. now sans Jones, lest anyone this side of St. Brown start to think their spot in the pecking order could be threatened by an acquisition.