It wasn’t an easy process, but the Detroit Lions have whittled the preseason 90-man roster down to 53. The cutdowns began over the weekend and were finalized at Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline.
The 53-man roster will change quickly, of course. The 6-game suspension for WR Jameson Williams, which takes effect after the deadline transactions are processed, ensures that the team will add at least one player not currently on the roster (be it a player the Lions cut or an outsider) to replace him. But for now, we know pretty closely what the Lions roster will look like when Dan Campbell’s Detroit team heads to Kansas City to kick off the 2023 regular season on September 7th.
Here is the initial 53-man roster for the Detroit Lions in 2023:
Quarterbacks
Jared Goff
Teddy Bridgewater
*Hendon Hooker – on the non-football injury list for at least the first four weeks
Any drama here went away when Nate Sudfeld tore his ACL in the preseason finale.
Running backs
David Montgomery
Jahmyr Gibbs
Jason Cabinda (FB)
The only real question here was how many the Lions would keep. Not many expected them to only keep three backfield players. Craig Reynolds being released as the third RB is a surprise, though he could return on Wednesday.
Wide receivers
Amon-Ra St. Brown
Josh Reynolds
Kalif Raymond
Marvin Jones
*Jameson Williams
Antoine Green
No surprises with the top five here. Williams is on the suspended list and not on the 53-man active roster.
Green won what appeared to be a hotly contested battle with Dylan Drummond and Chase Cota for the final spot. Maurice Alexander was also in the mix.
Tight ends
Sam LaPorta
Brock Wright
James Mitchell
Another spot where there wasn’t really much debate over who would make it and who would not.
Offensive line
Taylor Decker
Penei Sewell
Frank Ragnow
Jonah Jackson
Graham Glasgow
Halapoulivaati Vaitai
Colby Sorsdal
Matt Nelson
The Lions are starting out with just eight. Expect several players they cut to land on the practice squad. It’s still undetermined who will start at right guard between Big V and Graham Glasgow.
Defensive tackles
Alim McNeill
Isaiah Buggs
Brodric Martin
Levi Onwuzurike
Benito Jones
Jones was on the roster bubble but played his way onto the team with a good summer. Onwuzurike’s impressive return from a back injury is a wonderful development.
EDGE
Aidan Hutchinson
Charles Harris
Josh Paschal
John Cominsky
James Houston
Romeo Okwara
Julian Okwara
Both Okwara brothers making the final 53 might be a bit of a surprise, but the Lions depth here is envious.
Linebackers
Alex Anzalone
Jack Campbell
Derrick Barnes
Malcolm Rodriguez
Jalen Reeves-Maybin
Anthony Pittman
The top five were pretty well-established. Keeping Pittman for special team purposes is a mild upset, but he’s quite good there.
Defensive backs
Because the Lions kept several guys who can–and will–play both CB and safety, the secondary is all lumped together.
Cam Sutton
Jerry Jacobs
C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Emmanuel Moseley
Kerby Joseph
Tracy Walker
Brian Branch
Will Harris
Khalil Dorsey
Steven Gilmore
Ifeatu Melifonwu
The somewhat surprising activation of Moseley from the PUP list was a welcome curveball from the prediction process.
Gilmore, Dorsey and Melifonwu all making it defies several projections to the contrary.
Specialists
Jack Fox
Scott Daly
Riley Patterson
Patterson beat out Parker Romo in a camp competition that can best be described as uninspiring, but Patterson does have playoff-proven ability. Fox will handle both punting and kickoff duties.
