Ahead of the Thanksgiving Day game against the Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Lions had multiple players seemingly ready to return from injury and roster space had to be cleared for them. More specifically, three spots on the 53-man roster had to be opened up to accomodate those returning players.
As those roster moves were announced and the final injury report of the week came out, there was a player who appeared on one of the lists but not the other. Ultimately, only two spots on the active roster were created, or needed to be created.
Defensive end Marcus Davenport, as expected, was added to the active roster. So was rookie offensive lineman Miles Frazier. Frazier was at the end of his 21-day window to be activated, while Davenport still had some time left.
Defensive end Josh Paschal, who has been on IR all season due to a back injury, was also at the end of his window to be activated. He was declared out for the game against Green Bay, but he was not added to the active roster from the Non-Football Injury (NFI) list.
So Paschal is out for the season, without having played a snap.
Josh Paschal's career has been derailed by injuries from the start
The 2025 season was a big one for Paschal, in the final year of his rookie contract after the Lions used a top-50 overall pick on him in the 2022 draft. Ideally, he would have been healthy enough this year to help a pass rush that needed someone besides Aidan Hutchinson to produce. But it was not to be.
The overriding story of Paschal's career has been injuries. He missed the first five games of his rookie season after undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia that dated back to his final season at Kentucky. He missed two additional games later in the season due to a knee injury, and finished with two sacks (both in the same game) over 10 games played.
Paschal suffered another knee injury during practice going into Week 2 of the 2023 season, and he wound up missing five games. He finished with one sack in the 12 games he suited up for.
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Paschal was relatively healthy in 2024, playing in a career-best 14 games and making a career-high 10 starts. He just wasn't overly productive, with two sacks and an overall Pro Football Focus grade that landed outside the top-100 qualified edge rushers.
In late-October, Lions head coach Dan Campbell may have lightly foreshadowed Paschal not being able to play this season.
"It's a back (injury) is what it is, and there again, he is improving," Campbell said, via SI.com. "We're trying to be smart and take it as far as we can. He's got a few more things to show us before we're ready to open the window for him to practice."
Paschal had his practice window opened on Nov. 5, and he had progressed to being a full participant in practice. Then two days before the Thanksgiving Day game, he was listed as a non-participant.
With his 2025 never being able to progress beyond the practice field, Paschal's time with the Lions is likely coming to an end as he tries to get healthy ahead of being a free agent in March.