With one preseason game left to play, the Detroit Lions will soon shift their attention towards the regular season and their initial 53-man roster. We have received some clarity on certain position battles, while others remain fiercely close.
However, most of these position battles are for reserve spots, not starting positions. Part of what makes predicting the roster bubble difficult is that most of these depth players need to check more boxes than just starting potential. You need versatility, you need experience, you need potential, or you need special teams prowess—some players have all three, some are struggling to find one.
Looking at the starters on the team, we have a better understanding of their role on the team, but that does not mean that the Lions nor their fans are overwhelmingly confident. Can the offensive and defensive lines find their form early in the season? Will the secondary hold up? How will the tertiary receiving options impact the game? There are still many questions unanswered with this roster, and we might not get answers until well into the regular season.
Today’s Question of the Day is:
Which Detroit Lions position group are you most unsure about?My answer: Cornerback.
Right off the bat, there is the lingering question about top-end talent—are D.J. Reed and Rock Ya-Sin enough to compete in a pass-happy NFL? Yet beyond that obvious question, my biggest uncertainty is about the depth chart and how it will play out in the coming weeks.
Before we get into why this is a difficult position battle to predict, we have to look at how many spots are typically available in the first place. This is how many cornerbacks and safeties that the Lions have kept on the initial 53-man roster since 2021, their first season under Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes:
- 2021:6 cornerbacks, 4 safeties
- 2022:6 cornerbacks, 5 safeties
- 2023:7 cornerbacks, 4 safeties
- 2024:6 cornerbacks, 5 safeties (initial roster had 52 players)
- 2025:5 cornerbacks, 3 safeties (initial roster had 50 players; Daniel Thomas was signed during cuts and Thomas Harper was claimed off waivers two days later)
In general, the Lions have between 10 and 11 defensive backs on the roster, and I do not expect that to change in 2026. Right off the bat, we can lock in four defensive backs: D.J. Reed, Rock Ya-Sin, Christian Izien, and Keith Abney. Three more players—Chuck Clark, Thomas Harper, and Avonte Maddox—are safe bets to make the team as well. Some people may be adamant about keeping Khalil Dorsey, but the Lions love his impact on special teams. We are up to eight roster spots out of the 10 or 11 that is typical. That leaves anywhere from two to three spots for Ennis Rakestraw, Roger McCreary, and Nick Whiteside—the math checks out, it’s an easy decision, right?
The biggest wrinkle is the status of safeties Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph. It seems unlikely that either player will be ready for Week 1, but Campbell noted a few weeks ago that Branch and Joseph were making progress. If they were to stay on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, they would be forced to miss at least four games. However, there is a non-zero chance that the Lions are encouraged by their rehab and keep one or both players on the active 53-man roster (they would need to be activated off the PUP beforehand, however).
It would not be the first time that the Lions kept an injured player on the initial roster. In 2024, the Lions kept Ifeatu Melifonwu and DJ Reader on the Week 1 roster despite both nursing existing injuries. Reader returned in Week 2, while Melifonwu returned in Week 4. Detroit did the same in 2023 with Emmanuel Moseley, activating him off the PUP before cuts, although he wound up missing the first four games of the season anyway—it is worth noting that he suffered a hamstring injury during his ACL rehab.
If Branch and/or Joseph are activated, then the defensive back group gets very crowded. With Branch and Joseph plus Clark, Harper, and Maddox, you have five safeties on the roster (six if you count Izien, who is projected to start at nickel). Even with those two starters back in the fold, I do not see a world in which the Lions cut one of Clark, Harper, or Maddox. Therefore, if we want to meet that estimate of 10 or 11 defensive backs, the cuts have to come from the cornerbacks.
Instead of having two or three spots for Rakestraw, McCreary, and Whiteside, you would suddenly have one or two spots (keeping two plus Branch and Joseph would put the Lions at 12 defensive backs, more than they have historically done in this era). Each player has a legitimate case for a roster spot, and I frankly do not know how to approach this problem.
Rakestraw has the draft pedigree, and while his career thus far has been rocky, I would be surprised to see the Lions move on from him. While I think his play has been the worst of the three, it has not been bad enough to warrant giving up on him as a prospect. As a recent second-round selection, odds are he would get claimed on waivers as well—last year, another 2023 second rounder, JuJu Brents, was claimed off waivers after being a roster cut.
Whiteside has been the biggest riser in training camp, and while his second preseason game left a lot to be desired, he has still done enough to warrant a roster spot in most situations. However, as a cornerback with limited versatility (he is predominantly an outside corner) and limited starting experience (zero career starts across 11 career games), you do have to wonder if that will hurt his roster chances.
Finally, McCreary had had a quiet training camp, yet he has arguably been one of the top defenders in preseason. It might be difficult to conclude that, given his lack of interceptions and just one pass breakup, but his coverage has been tight—remember, a lack of targets usually means that his assignments are not getting open. Coupled with some solid impact as a run defender and ability to play inside or outside, his stock is rising.
On one hand, keeping Branch and Joseph on the PUP is the easy solution to the problem. However, that only delays the inevitable for when they return—you will have to clear two roster spots as some point. Similarly, if they are ready to play, wouldn’t you want to Pro Bowl-caliber safeties as soon as possible? I can’t actively root for either player to stay on the PUP because of roster gymnastics.
The Lions have many difficult decisions to come, but I believe that the cornerback group will be their toughest choice to make. Are they good enough? Are they happy with their depth? Only time will tell.
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