It's been a long time coming, but one practice squad player has earned a lot more time with the Lions after a sneaky good game against the Bears
It doesn't get said enough, but Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes is really good when it comes to undrafted free agents, even if they aren't guys that he initially signed. The Miami Dolphins signed linebacker Mitchell Agude after the 2023 NFL draft and he had a solid preseason with them. They waived him at the […]
It doesn't get said enough, but Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes is really good when it comes to undrafted free agents, even if they aren't guys that he initially signed. The Miami Dolphins signed linebacker Mitchell Agude after the 2023 NFL draft and he had a solid preseason with them.
They waived him at the cut-down that August and the Lions swooped in before Miami could sign him to their practice squad. Since then you would hear some rumblings about Agude and how good he looked. He never played for the Lions in 2023, but he was signed to a futures deal and the belief was that we were going to see more of him in 2024.
Then OTA's and camp rolled around and Agude immediately started looking good the reviews for him from the coaching staff were great.
"Big, long, athletic, can rush the passer, continue to put him at end, we actually tried him at SAM-backer also to see if he has that skillset to be able to do that. And that’s a different deal for him if he has to stack back, be able to read the triangle." Dan Cambell said in August. "But we want to take advantage of his ability to come off the edge and use that long arm, that’s one of his best moves. And then he has some counters off of that, so I'm excited to see him play in this preseason a lot to see exactly what he brings to the table.”
We got to see Agude in preseason and played very well in all three games. Then the story shifted to seeing him find a spot don't he 53-man roster. Ultimately that did not happen, but it still felt like as soon as he got a shot on the field in the regular season, he could earn a larger role. He was elevated for the first time against the Packers in Week 14. He played just nine snaps, but he faired well on them.
It was Sunday's game against the Bears where he looked really good. The Lion signed him to the 53-man roster on Saturday and he showed his appreciation by causing this forced fumble in the first quarter.
You can see him coming in the final minutes and making the hit. It was initially thought that Branch caused it and then NFL GSIS credited AMik Robertson at first before changing it to Agude.
Outside of that, he played 13 other snaps and showed good stuff in coverage and run-stopping. We didn't get to see too much of the pass rush in this one though.
The Lions linebacker room is about to have a dramatic shift in the coming weeks. Alex Anzalone and Jalen Reeves-Maybin are both expected to be back ahead of the playoffs. Agude shouldn't be affected by that shift. The more concerned parties are Ezekiel Turner and Kwon Alexander.
That will give Agude a chance to stick on the 53-man roster and get some more runs on defense and special teams. This is a guy who's earned the spot and could prove to be a much bigger asset in 2025 and beyond. It's been a bit of a long time coming, but we're seeing it pay off here.
We’re not giving up on one of Brad Holmes’ perceived big mistakes just yet, there’s still time to dunk on the critics
Last week we ran a little experiment where we tried to find what Brad Holmes' biggest mistake as the Lions GM was. We made our choice, but a lot of Lions fans responded with something else. They feel drafting Brodric Martin was Holmes' biggest mistake. You can understand why they would feel that way. Martin […]
