The Detroit Lions are getting ready for another run at the Super Bowl this season. But for players that have left the Motor City, their outlook for 2025 is a little less rosy.
The Lions have had significant turnover going from one of the NFL’s worst teams to a title contender. It’s left several former players looking for better opportunities elsewhere with a chance to start or even just a shot at a roster spot. But in the case of one former Lion, the clear path he’s seeking could wind up as another dead end as he’s at risk of being cut by his new team in the month of July.
Former Lions CB Amani Oruwariye Could Be Cut Before Training Camp
It’s been an adventure since Amani Oruwariye left Detroit. A fifth-round draft pick by the Lions in 2019, Oruwariye signed with the Tennessee Titans this offseason. While the Titans need some bodies in the secondary as they’ve dealt with injuries, Oruwariye already feels like the odd man out according to The Tennessean’s Nick Suss.
“Maybe the most up-in-the-air group,” Suss wrote in his latest 53-man roster projection. “A lot of the players are dealing with injuries, and the secondary didn’t look particularly strong in minicamp. So there’s a mix of players like [Mike] Brown, who make the squad as a veteran option to guard against [Kevin Winston Jr.] not being fully ready for the season and Jermari Harris, who wins a spot as an undrafted rookie with upside. If [L’Jarius] Sneed isn’t ready to go, this is the third [and potentially highest-priority] room where the Titans could be looking for outside help.”
Suss also went on to put Oruwariye in his “They’ve gotta earn it” category when breaking down the roster ahead of minicamp, but there’s a chance that he may not make it through the end of the month.
The Titans are Oruwariye’s fourth team in the past three seasons but he’s somehow found a way to stay in the news. After four seasons with the Lions, Oruwariye signed a one-year contract with the New York Giants in 2023 but failed to make the team out of training camp. He spent the rest of that season with the Jacksonville Jaguars but couldn’t make the roster out of camp in 2024 and latched on with the Dallas Cowboys.
Oruwariye was able to get on the active roster in Dallas toward the end of last season but his most notable play was a muffed blocked punt that cost the Cowboys a Monday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The 29-year-old spent most of the offseason looking for a home but latched on with Tennessee as they’ve dealt with a rash of injuries.
The Titans could decide to give Oruwariye a full tryout entering training camp. But it’s just as likely he’s not there for long with little to no buzz coming out of minicamp. While Oruwariye’s hopes of making the Titans aren’t dead, he hasn’t been able to make a Week 1 roster in each of the past two seasons and could make it a third this month.