Greg Dortch will not be returning to the Lions, and Detroit’s shocking decision makes even less sense and leaves a gaping hole
Dortch is reportedly joining Buffalo’s practice squad after Detroit surprisingly released him Sunday, leaving the Lions without one of their primary punt-return candidates less than two weeks before Week 1.
The Detroit Lions are not bringing back wide receiver Greg Dortch after shockingly cutting him on Sunday. At this point, he is signing with the Buffalo Bills. The Lions’s Week 2 opponent.
Dortch had been repping as the Lions’ No. 3 to No. 4 wide receiver all summer long. He was the starting kick returner. He was the starting punt returner at camp all summer. It just never made any sense that Detroit would suddenly decide it didn’t want him. He was never even on the bubble. It made no sense at all and not it continues to not make any sense.
What we thought the Lions were doing
It looked like the Lions were doing some roster gymnastics. One of the ways you can do that is to tell a player like Dortch that you’re going to release him temporarily while the team gets some guys on the 53-man roster so it can place them on injured reserve-to-return spots. The thing is that you need two players to go on IR to return to pull off what what we thought they were trying to pull off. The Lions sent just one in Cade Mays.
So what happens now?
That is the million dollar question. Dortch was expected to be the return man on both sides of the ball and now he’s just gone. A few weeks ago Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp told us that the punt returner job was down to Dortch and Tom Kennedy. The latter was also cut on Sunday, but he was retained on the practice squad.
In terms of who is on the roster right now, the only real options are Jacob Saylors, Jameson Williams, Sione Vaki, or maybe Tay Martin. Lions fans are probably going to be adamantly against Williams doing returns.
On the punt return side of things, Fipp said he wanted a strong player taking that role because those guys are usually taking more hits. I don’t know who fills that role at this time. This is going to be interesting.
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