Detroit Lions Mailbag: Is D.J. Reed a liability, should the Lions trade for Jessie Bates, and when will Brian Branch return?
Detroit’s secondary dominates this week’s mailbag, from Reed’s rough start and a potential safety trade to Branch’s uncertain timeline and the development of two young defenders.
The Detroit Lions will head to Carolina on Sunday night to take on the Panthers in prime time. Before then, Lions fans have some questions, and we’re going to answer them.
Is D.J. Reed a liability?
He’s struggling right now. There’s no hiding it. Of all defensive players in the NFL, Reed has allowed the second-most yards in the NFL through three games, with 258. Only Vikings DB Josh Metellus has allowed more. He’s also allowing a 154.9 passer rating. On top of that, the two pass interference penalties on Sunday were big reasons the Jets got back into the game.
It looks bad, but here is what I want to know. Is this a result more of him being bad or him having to stop Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson? Is it also a result of guys making insane catches despite tight coverage? Reed has a +20% catch rate allowed over expected. That tells you some of the balls going his way are not expected to be caught, but they’re getting caught anyway. It feels like we need to see a little bit more. Ask this one again in like five weeks. It’s not looking good right now, though.
Should the Lions consider a trade for Jessie Bates?
I have not personally seen or heard anything on Bates and the Lions, but it’s an interesting move. After Sunday, I’m tempted to say the Lions might have things figured out at safety. At least with their starting roles. Chuck Clark and Christian Izien played quite well. With Avonte Maddox and Thomas Harper out, they do need to find some depth, though. Bates doesn’t fit that idea.
But if the Lions were to trade for Bates, it would make some sense. He’s playing fairly well, and he is in the final year of his contract. The Lions would be taking on something like $10-$11 million. Not too bad.
But I do wonder if the Lions would rather finish this year out with Clark, Izien, eventually Brian Branch, and then draft their future starting safety in April. Cornerback is the much bigger need here, in my opinion. You either shoot your shot on Joey Porter Jr. or whoever else may be available around the deadline in a month, or you hope Ennis Rakestraw becomes the guy he looked like he could be on Sunday.
Other than Terrion Arnold, what Lions pick did you want to work out the most?
I have to go with tight end James Mitchell. I was so high on him going into the 2022 NFL Draft. He was really good at Virginia Tech before his ACL injury and was even projected to go relatively high in the draft. It felt like a steal when Detroit got him in the fifth round. I thought he would be the T.J. Hockenson replacement.
It didn’t work out. He lost a lot of his explosiveness that he had in college and is more of a blocking tight end now on the Cowboys’ practice squad.
Why aren’t Keith Abney and Ahmed Hassanein playing more?
The Lions typically like to bring their rookies along a bit slowly. They’ve always done it this way unless it was guys like Penei Sewell, Aidan Hutchinson, or Blake Miller, and they had to jump in the deep end fast. But go back and look at Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jack Campbell, Alim McNeill, and more. They all started very slowly and got more and more every week.
Abney did play last week, but it was mostly special teams work. Hassanein is technically a rookie as well, and I’m sure he’ll get his shot before you know it. Same with Jimmy Rolder. But I would expect to see a little more of these guys in the second half of the season and then a lot more in 2027.
Should we be worried about Brian Branch not coming back the same?
I don’t know about all that. Branch was playing really well last year before the injury. I think he should be fine when he gets back. The issue is, when does that happen? It does feel a bit concerning that Branch has not returned to practice yet. Especially when Lions head coach Dan Campbell said at the start of training camp that a return in late August or early September could happen.
Now it’s starting to look like late October or even early November for a return to game action, and if you go by the Lions’ usual way of returning players from injury, which is like two to three weeks of ramping up at practice before they throw them back in. If Branch were to theoretically return to practice next week, that puts him at an estimated return of maybe Week 7 against the Packers or Week 8 against the Vikings. The latter is in November.
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