The Detroit Lions went Black Friday shopping after Thanksgiving this year and signed four brand new players to their roster. Former All-Pro safety Jamal Adams, former Pro Bowl linebacker Kwon Alexander, defensive tackle Myles Adams and edge rusher Jonah Williams.
The big question surrounding these guys is how long before we see them play? Well, we now have an answer to that. Lions’ head coach Dan Campbell explained on Tuesday that all four players will play Thursday night against the Packers.
“Yeah, I think there’s a chance all four could help us.”
In terms of how much these guys will play, that remains to be seen. Campbell’s initial comments after the Alexander signing point to the linebacker being the guy that plays the most right out of the gate.
“I know Kwon, certainly AG (Aaron Glenn) knows him. We were with him in New Orleans. We know exactly what he’s suited to do, and it’ll just be, most of this is going to be carry over for him. you know, a lot of this, some of the terminology may be a tick different than what he was doing Denver, but a lot of it’s the same as New Orleans. So I think he’s going to pick up all this fast. we’re gonna ask him to do what he does really well.”
As for the others, there’s a shot we see a lot of Myles Adams in this game if Reader can’t go and it looks that way. He’ll probably split duty with Brodric Martin and Chris Smith. Jonah Williams could see some reps too with Paschal and Onwuzurike out for this one.
Jamal Adams is the really interesting one. He’s been primarily a safety, but the Lions have been doing some linebacker things with him. This guy can rush the passer. He had 9.5 sacks in a season not long ago. He can be used a lot like the Lions used Melifonwu late in the season last year. Dial up some blitzes for him and let him to go work.
We’ll see what happens on Thursday. This does add a nice little level of exactment to all this doesn’t it?