The Lions’ newest safety has an intriguing trait that makes this practice-squad poach worth watching
Detroit is signing rookie safety Bishop Fitzgerald off Pittsburgh’s practice squad, adding a former All-American with a long history of creating turnovers.
On Monday, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell said the Lions would be looking around for some safety depth, and one place they said they would look was on practice squads around the league. The Lions have found their man, per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. They’re releasing veteran linebacker Joe Bachie to make room. He’s a good candidate to come back on the practice squad.
The Lions are signing safety Bishop Fitzgerald off the Steelers’ practice squad
Fitzgerald fits that young, up-and-coming player mold the Lions were talking about. He’s 23-years-old and is in just his second season. He went undrafted out of USC this past April and spent the summer with the Titans before signing with the Steelers’ practice squad after final cutdowns.
He had a fairly good showing with the Titans this summer, and it seemed like a genuinely hard cut for them to make at the end of the day. He showed some stuff that really fits the Lions. Strong run defender, good in coverage, and a good tackler. That, of course, was all in the preseason.
I reached out to our Steelers beat wirter Rob Gregson to get an idea of what the Steelers liked in him and here’s what he had to say:
“Bishop Fitzgerald was a well-traveled college football player who started from humble beginnings at Coffeyville Community College before transferring to NC State and ultimately becoming an NFL Draft prospect at USC. He was the less notable of the Trojans duo between him and Kamari Ramsey, so he fell out of the NFL Draft before joining the Tennessee Titans as a UDFA. He was with the team throughout OTAs, minicamp, and training camp before being released by the Titans on roster cutdown weekend.
Ever since, he’s been on the Steelers’ practice squad. Pittsburgh chose him over some other in-house candidates to round out the 16-man squad due to one main reason: ball production. The Lions are adding an instinctual, proven takeaway merchant. He’s no Kerby Joseph, but he does fit the mold as a post player who can patrol the middle of the field and make quarterbacks pay.”
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