The Detroit Lions had a receiver problem all summer long. While they very well may have fixed that problem with the additions of Tim Patrick and Allen Robinson, both those guys are not guys the Lions could have long term futures with since they’re both in their 30’s already.
There is a player that just became available on Thursday that fits the bill of what the Lions need in a versatile receiver with outside ability and is still just 23-years-old. We’re talking about former third-round pick David Bell. The Browns just waived him on Thursday.
The Browns took Bell out of Purdue in 2022 after he had a huge year that saw him win Big Ten Receiver of the Year. But it didn’t work out very well for both parties. One of the big reasons is that the Browns just have guys that have been better than him in Amari Cooper, Jerry Juedy and others. The other is that there has been some development issues.
In Detroit Bell can get a new start with a better quarterback situation and coaches that will know what to do with him. They can also take their time with him since he’s so young and the team has guys that can play while the Lions see what they can get out of Bell. Plus they’d only pay a practice squad salary here. This a low risk and potentially high reward situation. If it doesn’t work out, they can move on with little to no loss.
The Lions would have to make room to make this happen and there’s a god chance that room could be made as early as Saturday. The Lions could be moving a player up to the 53-man roster to fill their one open spot there.
While the Lions do have Bell’s former teammate Donovan Peoples-Jones on the practice squad, but that is an experiment that has not quite worked and Peoples-Jones had a really rough summer. It’s still a bit of a surprise that the team retained him. Maybe the better move would be to move on from Peoples-Jones and go with Bell.