The Lions’ shocking Greg Dortch cut may not be what it looks like
Because Dortch is a vested veteran who can immediately re-sign, Detroit could be temporarily using his roster spot to protect injured players and younger talent during the cutdown process.
The Detroit Lions shocked plenty of people Sunday by cutting wide receiver Greg Dortch, but this move probably isn’t what it looks like on the surface. Lions fans who only watched a few preseason games might think Dortch was the fifth or sixth receiver on the roster. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Detroit didn’t use him much in the preseason because they didn’t feel they needed to. He repped on returns and that was pretty much it, and there was a reason for that.
Dortch was expected to land the kick returner job and the punt returner job. On top of that, he was the Lions’ third or fourth wide receiver depending on the day of the week. Greg Dortch was a big deal in camp. Which makes this whole thing weird. Which then makes you wonder if the Lions are trying to pull off some roster gymnastics here.
Why the Lions would cut Dortch just to bring him back
Let me break it down. On the surface, cutting a player you plan to re-sign sounds completely ridiculous. But it’s roster gymnastics. That’s all it really is.
The Lions have to get down to 53 players. Let’s say they have a couple injured players they want to put on injured reserve while keeping those guys eligible to return this season. In certain cases, those players have to make the initial 53-man roster first. That’s where Dortch comes into this.
Instead of cutting a young player who would then have to clear waivers (and maybe he doesn’t come back because another team just claims him), the Lions can temporarily cut a veteran like Dortch. Because Dortch is a vested veteran, he doesn’t go through waivers. The second Detroit releases him, he’s a free agent. He’s a free agent right now.
How it works in simple terms
You’ve got 54 guys you want to keep, but two of those guys are hurt. You need to get somebody temporarily out of the way. So you go to Dortch and theoretically say, “Hey Greg, we’re going to release you, don’t go anywhere, we’re going to take care of some roster business and then bring you right back.”
Now Dortch is off the roster. The injured players make the 53-man roster. Then the Lions move those players to injured reserve, and those roster spots open right back up. Now you have two spots open. Now you bring Dortch back, and there you go.
So what did the Lions actually accomplish? They didn’t lose the injured players. They didn’t expose one of their young players to waivers. And if everything goes according to plan, they didn’t lose Greg Dortch either. They essentially used Dortch’s veteran status to borrow his roster spot for a day.
The bigger injury picture
There’s an important wrinkle here. The NFL allows teams to designate up to two injured players to return right at the 53-man cutdown without doing all of this. So if the Lions are making this kind of move, it could mean they’ve got more injury maneuvering to do than just those two players.
One of those players is almost certainly offensive lineman Cade Mays, whom the Lions will want to get back at some point this season. But then you’ve got questions about whether Jimmy Rolder will have to go on injured reserve to return, whether Isiah Pacheco will need the same treatment, and whether the Lions might want to put Giovanni Manu on that list. There’s also the situation with Christian Izien and several other players who are hurt, and it’s unclear when they’ll be back.
Dortch should be back soon
Dortch could be back as early as Monday. The more you think about it, this is probably what’s going on here. It just doesn’t make sense to let him go. It just doesn’t. It would be even more shocking than it already is if the Lions just let him walk out the door. You have to understand, this is a guy who was penciled in for a significant role on this team. Letting him leave for real would mean something went very wrong behind the scenes, and there’s no indication of that.
We’ll see how it plays out, but don’t be surprised when Dortch’s name pops back up on the Lions’ roster in the next day or two.
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