The Detroit Lions play the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Before we get there, we’ve gone through the injury reports, watched everything that went down at practice this week, and listened to Lions coach Dan Campbell. With all of that in mind, here’s what I think the Lions depth chart is going to look like against Carolina.

For starters, the offense doesn’t change much. The defense is where things get fun.

Offense

Ben Bartch hasn’t practiced Wednesday or Thursday. The Lions have not announced whether he’ll be healthy for the game. Unless he comes back and puts in a full practice on Friday, it seems like he’s going to be out.

That means you’ll see the same offensive line you saw last week against the New York Jets. Seth McLaughlin could be active as a guard-center type of insurance policy off the bench. Detroit also has Miles Frazier, who can come in if they need him.

At running back, I’ve had this thing where I keep putting Jacob Saylors over Sione Vaki because I think maybe this is the week they do it. After the Jets game, though, I’m done with that. Vaki is the clear RB2 on this team now, and Saylors is your kick returner. You’re going to get something out of both of those guys.

I also have Tyler Conklin missing this game again. We finally got to see the Lions include Jackson Meeks last week, and I think we’re going to see a little more of that against the Panthers. Detroit wants to get Meeks more involved and see where that goes.

Defense

Let’s start with the safeties. Chuck Clark and Christian Izien start again. Both of those guys had really good games against the Jets.

The depth behind them is the issue. I have the Lions bringing up Jalen Mills again, and I think we’ll see the debut of Bishop Fitzgerald in this game. To be honest, I’m really surprised the Lions didn’t sign any free-agent safeties this week. You can’t go in there with just three safeties. Maybe you see Keith Abney back there a little bit, but at this point, I think he’s mostly going to play cornerback.

At linebacker, Jimmy Rolder is going to be active again. I think we finally may see him play a little bit on defense. I don’t know how much, but Malcolm Rodriguez has struggled in that WILL spot.

In terms of who starts there, I actually have Trevor Nowaske in that role. I don’t know if we can necessarily call it the WILL, but that’s how I have it filled out right now. I think you’re going to see a lot more of Nowaske this week as an outside linebacker. He played really well against the Jets, and I’m eager to see how that develops. I also have him behind Derrick Barnes as a SAM because I think the Lions might move him around and do different things with him.

On the defensive line, I want to put Ahmed Hassanein in there. I just don’t feel like they’re going to do it. It would be good to see him, but we’ll keep waiting on that one.

The big one here is that I’m going ahead and starting Ennis Rakestraw opposite D.J. Reed.

Maybe it’s crazy to do that after just one game this year. But why not? Detroit started Roger McCreary last week, and it didn’t work out that well. You know what Rock Ya-Sin looks like. Khalil Dorsey is a good special teamer, but you just never really see him on defense. I guess you could try Abney there, but I don’t see it.

Even if Rakestraw doesn’t technically start this game, I think he plays a lot of snaps against the Panthers. It just makes sense to see what he can do.

That’s our projected Lions depth chart heading into Sunday. Once we get the inactives and see what the lineups look like on the field, we’ll put together a new, more accurate depth chart. Until then, this is our projection.

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