The Detroit Lions may have to leave some players in Indianapolis after their final preseason game due to NFL rule change
Detroit Lions may have to leave some players in Indianapolis after their final preseason game due to an NFL rule change, and the reason why creates a surprising situation the team hasn’t dealt with before.
The NFL sure loves to make things easy on its teams, doesn’t it? Usually, at the end of the training camp, the Lions will play their final preseason game over the weekend and then have until the following Tuesday to make their final cuts. Welp, not anymore.
The Lions and the rest of the NFL now have to have final cuts done by Sunday, August 30th
The Lions will play their final preseason game on Saturday, August 28th, against the Colts in Indianapolis. Instead of flying back home after the game and giving players a chance to catch their bearings for at least a couple of days before going into total stress mode, the Lions and their players will now have less than 24 hours to make final decisions.
It’s not going to be a big deal to most of the league since most of the league plays their final pre-season game on Friday. But for the Lions, Colts, Bears, and Titans, they’ll all play on Saturday and have to have their decisions made less than a full day later.
You can make a good argument that by the time the Lions get to this point, they’ll have most of their cut decisions made, but it does put them up against it, and it will change their final decisions in some way.
The positive of this is that it does allow the Lions to start the week by claiming players who were cut by other teams, with the claims deadline being on Monday at 1:00 P.M. ET. It then allows them to get that player in their building and have 14 days before their Week 1 opener against the Saints. So there is a benefit. But it’s still a bit too fast.
Detroit Lions News