Detroit Lions Mailbag: Who's the current favorite for the Lions' kicker job?
Welcome back to another Detroit Lions mailbag. We've got plenty of questions this week. Let's jump into them. Right now the answer has to be linebacker Jack Campbell. We saw him getting better as the season went on last year, now he's come out and had a really solid spring that had Lions' linebacker coach […]
Welcome back to another Detroit Lions mailbag. We've got plenty of questions this week. Let's jump into them.
Right now the answer has to be linebacker Jack Campbell. We saw him getting better as the season went on last year, now he's come out and had a really solid spring that had Lions' linebacker coach Kelvin Shepherd saying he was at another level and operating like an eight year pro. Campbell should be expected to play a major role in the Lions defense in 2024 and you'll likely see why he was taken in the first-round.
Right now I'm going with Michael Badgley returning. That could definitely change at training camp. Jake Bates has a big leg and we've all seen it, but he also has accuracy issues that we've all seen. Seven misses in 11 games isn't something to just ignore becasue he can hit a 64-yard field goal. He needs to be able to hit 39-yard ones too.
Badgley didn't have that great of a Spring, but the Lions know what they have there. We'll see. I still think waiving James Turner was a bad move.
Vaki is going to be all over the place. Think of Jamal Agnew's usage with the Jaguars. He can be used anywhere on special teams, but he can be used as a running back and receiver on offense too. He's be the RB3 for this team and that should be his primary role, but don't be surprised to see him in the pass game a lot. He has some potential YAC ability that would be nice to see unlocked.
Sadly I don't see a spot for him on the roster this year. He was once one of my favorite draft prospects in 2022 and it was awesome to see Detroit take him, but he just has not worked out. Shane Zylstra and Sean McKeon ultimately will beat him out due to being more reliable pass catchers and better blockers. There's always a shot that this could change at some point. Mitchell could have a killer camp and preseason. Right now it seems he's gone though.
That's kind of a hard one to answer since we also haven't heard much about Moseley. But this quote from Campbell in early June might be pointing to the idea that Moseley will be ready to go by camp or during camp.
"On if Lions DL DJ Reader, Lions CB Emmanuel Moseley and Lions OLB Marcus Davenport are on track to be back to playing at the start of training camp:
Yeah, I would say Reader would be the one who – he’ll be a decision on at what point is he ready to start practicing. But that’s not something that we’re caught off guard by. We knew this would take a minute here. I would anticipate everybody else to be pretty close to ready, if not it’s going to be tight. It’ll be enough to where they’re going to get a really good amount of training camp work, if that makes sense. So no, there’s nobody that I’m alarmed by. I would say Reader is probably the one that’s going to take a minute.”
The very plain and simple answer that I tried to get across to a lot of Lions fans last year is that he's just not a very good player. He did have an ok 2022, but the key word there is "ok." Nothing he did was really ever that good.
In 2023 he didn't show up to OTAs and that upset the team. Then he got benched for Week 1 and made a public thing about it. Then when he did get to play, he was bad. Ultimately the Lions chose to let him go and the Chiefs clearly saw that he wasn't that good there either.
Now he's having all kinds of legal issues with domestic violence and animal cruelty. He's likely to be out of the league pretty soon.
There isn't a way to put him on the practice squad without releasing him and taking a chance he gets claimed elsewhere. The Lions will stash him on the 53-man roster all year like they did with Steven Gillmore and Antoine Green last season. He may get a shot to play a little bit closer to the end of the year like Brodric Martin did in 2023, but the reality is that we probably won't see him take the field till 2025.
I fully expect them to bring in some more players during camp, but that won't take up much of the cap. What will most likely be done is the Lions will take some of that money and hold onto it for in-season transactions and then roll the rest of it over to 2025 for when they extend Aidan Hutchinson and Kerby Joseph and then get new deals for Carlton Davis and Alim McNeill.
No announcement has been made by the Lions for that yet. What I can tell you is that last year they released the tickets on their website on July 19th. That was 11 days before fans were able to use them for the first ticketed practice on July 30th.
The Lions are reporting to camp at almost the same exact time they did last year when rookies reported on the 19th and the rest of the team reported on the 22nd. This year rookies report on the 20th and the rest of the team joins the 23rd.
So, and this is purely speculation, there's a chance that they could release tickets on the 20th to coincide with the start of camp like they did last year. We'll be sure to report the dates as soon they're announced.
This one shifts week to week for me. Right now I think receiver Isaiah Williams might have the best shot due to his YAC ability and possible shot at being a return man. It's going to be a lot harder for UDFA's to make the roster this year, but I would look for a good amount of them to be on the practice squad.
NFL Analyst suggests the Lions trade Hendon Hooker and sign veteran quarterback with ties to Dan Campbell
We are smack dab in the middle of hot take season, people. Buckle up and get ready for a crazy month of all kinds of takes. We've already seen one writer suggest that the Detroit Lions abandon Jared Goff for Justin Fields in 2025 and we've seen an analyst suggest the Lions sign Michael Thomas. […]
