What is going on with Lions' Isaiah Buggs?
The Detroit Lions signed defensive lineman Isaiah Buggs at the start of training camp in 2022. He came in as a part of the Lions goal to fix their interior defensive line with "girth." He wound up starting 13 games for the Lions and he played pretty well in those games. The bigger thing is that […]
The Detroit Lions signed defensive lineman Isaiah Buggs at the start of training camp in 2022. He came in as a part of the Lions goal to fix their interior defensive line with "girth." He wound up starting 13 games for the Lions and he played pretty well in those games.
The bigger thing is that he became a locker room leader. After a 1-6 start, it was Buggs who called a team meeting in an effort to get things turn around. It helped a lot and the Lions did turn things around. He was a big part of that.
So naturally you would think that he would continue to be the Lions starter in the middle alongside Alim McNeil and he would continue to be a leader.
We're two games into the season and he hasn't played. It's not a thing were he's dressed and he just hasn't hit the field. He's been benched completely and put on the inactive list two weeks in a row. What is going on?
For starters, Buggs didn't have the best camp. You could see as time went on that Benito Jones and Levi Onwuzurike were beginning to pass him up. Then on the eve of Week 1 beginning, Buggs took to Twitter with a cryptic message and according to Lions fans that followed him on Twitter, he change his profile picture from him in a Lions jersey to just a black circle and he took all Lions things out of his bio. I can't speak to whether or not he did that because I didn't see it, but it makes sense.
We found out the next day that he had been benched and this was in reaction to that. The assumption was that he'd be back for Week 2, but he wasn't.
Now you have to wonder again as we head into Week 3. James Houston got injured in Week 2 and will miss time according to Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell. Josh Paschal was placed on injured reserve on Friday and will be out three more games.
If we get to Week 3 against the Falcons and Buggs is inactive again, there has to be something really going on here. Perhaps he could be on his way out of town via trade. Maybe there's some sort of punishment thing? The Lions were reportedly upset he didn't show up to voluntary workouts. Who knows at this point? We could all know less than a week from now.
4 winners and 3 losers from Lions vs Seahawks
Welp, it wasn't the homecoming that the Detroit Lions or their fans were hoping for. They fought tooth and nail with the Seahawks, but at the end of the day, they just couldn't stop the Seattle offense and they wound up losing in 37-31 in overtime. After some time to think, I've got four winners […]
Featured image by Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
