The Detroit Lions play their first game of the season tomorrow night. With that comes the return of the usual Saturday roster moves. The Lions made a few this week. Here’s what they did:
Elevated Kyle Peko from practice squad
One of the more surprising cut from the Detroit Lions on cutdown day was the release of defensive lineman Kyle Peko. He had an exceptional summer and the Lions purposely held him out of all of their preseason games.
So the expectation was that he was clearly making the 53-man roster. While he was cut on Tuesday, we now know that those expectations were right to have. Peko has not yet been added back tot he 53, but he will be playing Sunday.
Peko is expected to play a big role on the Lions defense as a premier rotational guy. He’ll come in and spare DJ Reader or Alim McNeil and play that Benito Jones role from last year. A big guy that can run stuff.
While Brodric Martin is on IR, Peko will continue to be an asset to him once he comes back. The seven yet has been around and seen some things and can help coach Martin up. It helps that Peko was with new Lions defensive line coach Terrell Williams in Tennessee.
Elevate Tom Kennedy from practice squad
Here we go. Looks like we won’t be seeing the Lions debut of the team’s newest receiver Tim Patrick this Sunday. Patrick looked pretty good for the Broncos during the preseason and had a strong camp as well, but it looks like the team will take another week to get him used to the playbook. We’ll see long time Lion Tom Kennedy getting the shot.
Signed Chris Smith to 53-man roster
Kind of saw this one coming a little bit. Smith has been with the Lions for a minute now. He was on the team’s practice squad all year last year and Lions head coach Dan Campbell recently touted Smith in one of his pressers.
“We just expect this, this slow steady climb. You get a little bit better every day because there is consistency to that. A guy like (Lions DL) Chris Smith does that every day. There will be things on tape that you don’t see. He’s tying up guys. He does dirty work, and he does exactly what he’s coached, and he does it over and over and over again.”
Smith is now a part of the roster and we’ll see what he can do in his NFL regular season debut.