I will not bore you to death listing the players who the Detroit Lions released today. For the most part they were camp bodies, and you would have to be a huge NFL/College Football nerd to know who any of them were. I do this for a living and have no freaking idea who most of the players released were, or frankly really care. They are off to continue their football dreams elsewhere, be that teh UFL, USFL next spring, or in the CFL. We shall see. However a couple of things of note did happen to day.
The first being the expected placement of RB Jahvid Best on the physically unable to perform list for the regular season. That means Best, by NFL rule is now on the sidelines for teh first six games. He is eligible to return for the at the Chicago Bears in week seven, and there are some report that timetable lines up with his return from concussion issues. I have to say this now, until Best puts a helmet on and once again takes a NFL snap I feel that he will not ever return. This issue has been going on for close to a year now, and I have seen to make other NFL players wrap up their careers over stuff like this. OT Jonathan Scott and C Bill Nagy were both placed on IR. The team also placed rookie corner Chris Greenwood on the pup list.
With their other moves that left the Lions with 74 players on their roster one less than what they had to be at 4pm this past afternoon. They traded an undisclosed draft pick to the Washington Redsksins for CB Kevin Barnes. Barnes was a third round pick a few years back, and he was the third corner for the Redskins last year. It looks like he lost his job in Washington when that team signed free agent Cedric Griffin. Last Year Barnes had 26 tackles and two picks for Washington. Hard to say how big an upgrade he is over what the Lions already had, but with the two injuries suffered Saturday night against the Oakland Raiders a move had to be made.
Barnes helps in terms of depth, but I got to wonder about taking another guy who wasn’t starter and possibly trying to turn him into a starter in the less than two weeks that remain before the start of the regular season. I don’t know abut that move at all. Give Lions General Manager Martin Mayhew a lot of credit for making the move and let’s hope it pans out.
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