5 Lions who did not help themselves in the preseason finale

Peoples-Jones simply has not come anywhere close to fulfilling the hopeful expectations the LIons had when they traded for him at the deadline last year. Or re-signed the Detroit native this offseason with the full intent of Peoples-Jones winning the No. 4 wide receiver role.

Saturday’s game was a particularly rough one. He didn’t catch any of the three targeted passes thrown his way. Peoples-Jones looked sluggish in his routes. Failing to give good effort at blocking is a major no-no for the Lions, and there was some of that from Peoples-Jones against the Steelers, too.

It’s hard to imagine Peoples-Jones making the team after such a disappointing summer, capped by a very disappointing performance. His only real chance is that none of his viable competition has pulled away from Peoples-Jones.

Bates struggled from the opening kickoff–literally. His kickoff attempt failed to make the required landing zone, giving the Steelers the ball at the 40-yard line. It was one of two errant kickoffs for Bates that set up the Steelers with great field position via penalties on the kicker.

Bates also missed a 30-yard field goal from the middle of the field with a perfect Scott Daly snap and hold from punter Jack Fox. He did redeem himself a bit with a tackle on a kickoff and a late 46-yard field goal that just snuck inside the left upright.

Gilmore made the Lions as an undrafted rookie from Marshall a year ago, but he’s facing a very different level of job competition this year. No. 24 really struggled in several downfield coverage attempts, notably getting blown past by Steelers reserve wideout Dez Fitzpatrick twice.

To Gilmore’s credit, he did wind up forcing Fitzpatrick out of bounds before the wideout could complete the process of the catch on a ball that hung up way too long. It would have been a lot better if Gilmore didn’t need some help to stay with his marks in coverage.

Gilmore has largely been the same player he was a year ago. That was strong enough to make the ’23 Lions. He might not even stick on the practice squad in ’24, and that’s about the growth of the team more than it’s about Gilmore–though his relative lack of improvement hasn’t helped him either.

It’s always tough to properly evaluate offensive line play in real-time watching unless the lineman either does something really dominant or really misses an assignment. For Clemens, that meant seeing No. 63 chasing after Steelers defenders he was supposed to block on two blown up run plays and also a sack on Hooker where Clemens feet just weren’t fast enough to stay in front of his man.

Maybe it will look better upon further film review, but the initial watch was not favorable for Clemens, an undrafted rookie G/C from UCLA.

Mitchell has been locked into a major battle all offseason for the No. 3 (and/or No. 4) tight end role. The best arguments in Mitchell’s favor are his overall ability at the position while competing against guys with more limited roles, and his status as a fifth-round draft pick by this regime two years ago.

That latter fact will have to be what saves him in 2024. Mitchell dropped an easy pass from Hendon Hooker in this one, looking more like a bad volleyball setter than a receiver. His too-tall blocking and sluggishness in getting out in front as a blocker in the run game have been evident all summer, and the Steelers game was no different. Shane Zylstra, not known at all for his blocking, did a lot better in that department against Pittsburgh. That’s not good for Mitchell.