Final Detroit Lions 53-man roster projection heading into 2024 regular season
Wide Receivers (4)
- Amon-Ra St. Brown
- Jameson Williams
- Kalif Raymond
- Isaiah Williams
Isaiah Williams is easily redundant here, overlapping with St. Brown and Raymond as a slot receiver or return man type. But he undrafted rookie out of Illinois has made it impossible for the Lions not to keep him on the 53-man. He'd never make it through waivers and back to them as a practice squad option.
An addition that fits the description of an "X" receiver could easily happen here between now and Tuesday. Peoples-Jones almost made it by sheer default right now, but his performance against the Steelers (and all preseason) did not warrant that leeway.
Tight Ends (4)
- Sam LaPorta
- Brock Wright
- Shane Zylstra
- Parker Hesse
Having room to keep four tight ends, likely down to finding a way to keep Parker Hesse around, is certainly another possible conversation the Lions' coaches will have before cut day. With the trim to four wide receivers, I got to four tight ends.
Offensive Line (9)
- OT Taylor Decker
- OT Penei Sewell
- C Frank Ragnow
- OG Kevin Zeitler
- OG Graham Glasgow
- OT/OG Colby Sorsdal
- OT Dan Skipper
- OT Giovanni Manu
- OG Kayode Awosika
Depth here, as it is for most teams, is a big concern for the Lions. Manu is not expected to play this year, as he gets a "redshirt" development year as a rookie coming from the University of British Columbia, and since next year's third-round pick was given up to get him in April's draft he'll have a 53-man roster spot no matter what. Undrafted rookie Kingsley Eguakun would be a sneaky candidate to make it here, perhaps at the expense of Awosika or someone at another position.
Rookie guard Christian Mahogany has yet to be taken off the NFI list after he dealt with an illness. Starting the season on the list, and thus not on the 53-man roster, is easily in play.