3 Lions Making it Easy for Detroit to Say Goodbye in 2025

3. Amik Robertson, CB

Speaking of struggling in coverage, Amik Robinson has already been targeted 60 times in 13 games this season, allowing a passer rating of 94.2 when being thrown at. That's north of the NFL league average (92.1), and is absolutely terrible in comparison to the league-low mark of 76.5 that the Lions are giving up as a unit.

There's been a grand total of one single game so far this season in which Robertson earned a coverage grade of 70 or above from PFF in 2024, and that lines up with what we've seen for his whole career. Playing out his rookie deal with the Raiders, Robertson earned coverage grades of 45.4, 39.9, 31.3 and 65.8 across his first four seasons.

The one point in Robertson's defense (no pun intended) is his ability to stuff the run from the slot. Despite being undersized at 5-foot-8 and 183 pounds, Robertson is one of the league's better run defenders in the slot.

That's simply not enough though.

Having a slot corner who can stop the run can be incredibly valuable. Being able to play an extra defensive back while still being as stout against the run as you would be with three linebackers on the field is something any defense would love. But when your corner isn't any better in coverage than a good coverage linebacker, what's the point?

The Lions signed Robertson on a two-year deal this offseason, but they clearly weren't sold on his long-term outlook. He only carried a cap hit of $2.85 million in 2024, and that would jump to $6.4 million in 2025. The dead money the LIons take on by cutting him, however, drops from $4.5 million in 2024 to $1.65 million next offseason. That means they would have lost cap space by cutting him this year, but cutting him this offseason would free up nearly $5 million.

That's going to be an easy business decision.

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