Who will make the Detroit Lions’ final 53-man roster? John Drennan breaks down his roster predictions following the Lions’ preseason win over the Indianapolis Colts, including the biggest winners, toughest cuts, injury questions, and players fighting for a spot.
John covers Josh Dobbs, Jacob Sailors, Greg Dortch, Jackson Meeks, Ahmed Hassanein, Eric O’Neill, Skyler Gill-Howard and more while predicting Detroit’s final depth chart on offense and defense.
Plus, what could injuries and potential IR moves mean for players like Isaiah Pacheco, Brian Branch, Kirby Joseph and others?
The final cuts are coming. See who John believes will be on the Detroit Lions’ 53-man roster when the regular season begins.
🏈 Secondhand Lions — Detroit Lions analysis, roster breakdowns, predictions, and weekly reactions from John Drennan and Bill Radford.
John Drennan: Welcome to this very special edition of the Secondhand Lions. My name is John Drennan. I am without my partner, Bill Radford today. I'm just coming on here for a brief
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John Drennan: review, given it is Sunday, a few hours before the final cuts for the 53-man roster, and following the Lions win last night over the Indianapolis Colts in their final preseason game, so…
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John Drennan: I'll be brief, I want to get right into it. First of all.
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John Drennan: Several players did very well yesterday to help their cause. On the offensive side, Josh Dobbs locked in the number 2 spot at quarterback. Jacob Saylor's not only locked in being in the running back room, but I don't know, he might be our number…
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John Drennan: two running back, at least while Isaiah Pacheco remains injured.
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John Drennan: Greg Dortsch did well, especially as a returner.
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John Drennan: And…
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John Drennan: Mason Miller, an offensive lineman who's typically been at guard or tackle, actually played center yesterday. I double-checked his number twice watching the game, because I thought, who is this guy? And he has not played center before, but apparently they've been experimenting with him, and…
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John Drennan: He actually scored very well yesterday in his PPF score.
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John Drennan: Er… PFF score, rather, and…
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John Drennan: Then, Jackson Meeks did very well again as a converted wide receiver, now playing tight end. On the defensive side, Ahmed Hassanine had another good game at the edge, as did Eric O'Neill.
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John Drennan: And Skyler Gill Howard, once again, very disruptive as an interior lineman. The sixth-round draft pick this year, he had a sack.
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John Drennan: And then Joe Bocce, the linebacker, who played at Michigan State in college, He did well.
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John Drennan: And so a lot of guys did well, and there was nobody that stuck out, or stood out as having really played poorly yesterday that I'm aware of, so that was really good in the Lions' victory there.
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John Drennan: So, with that, what I want to do is revisit what I did on our last podcast, and that is go through my roster predictions, and just, kind of for fun, see how this ends up compared to what actually happened. So, here we go, I'm just gonna go through it. On the offensive side.
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John Drennan: The quarterbacks, Jared Goff and Josh Dobbs. The running backs, Jameer Gibbs, Isaiah Pacheco, Sione Vacchi, and Jacob Sailors.
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John Drennan: The receivers, Amon Ross St. Brown, Jamison Williams, Isaac Tesla, Greg Dortch, and Tay Martin.
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John Drennan: On the line, Panay Sewell, Christian Mahogany, Juice Scruggs, Tate Ratledge, Blake Miller, Larry Boreham, Miles Frazier, and I'm gonna go with Mason Miller, who I talked about a little while ago, because
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John Drennan: I just think the Lions have to have a backup center until Cade Mays comes back from injury, and Seth McLaughlin just hasn't been getting it done, and watching Miller yesterday, I think…
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John Drennan: there's a good chance they'll put him on the roster, and in my mind, it was between him and Barch, Ben Barch, who…
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John Drennan: had been out with concussion protocol, so I was surprised to see him play. So if it's not Mason Miller, I think it'll be Ben Barch.
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John Drennan: Okay, then the tight end, Sam Laporta, Tyler Conklin.
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John Drennan: Brock Wright, and Jackson Meeks. That's 23 on the offense. On the defense, Hutchinson, so I'm talking about the defensive line now. Hutchinson, DJ Wanham, Derek Moore, Tyler Lacey, Ahmad Hassanin.
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John Drennan: Aleem McNeil, Tyleek Williams, Levi Ozarki, and… Skylar Gil Howard.
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John Drennan: And then either Chris Smith or Miles Adams, and to me, that's a tie between those two guys.
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John Drennan: If I had to make a choice, it'd be Chris Smith.
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John Drennan: Instead of Miles Adams. Now, one name I did not list there, which I had listed last time, was Eric O'Neill. I love that guy. I think there's a good chance he makes it.
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John Drennan: instead of one of the other names, either on the D-line or somewhere else, but I just had to make a call, so without question, he'd end up on the practice squad.
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John Drennan: Linebackers.
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John Drennan: Jack Campbell, Derek Barnes, Malcolm Rodriguez, Devin White, and by the way, last podcast, I referred to him as Smith. That was my bad. It's White, Devin White.
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John Drennan: Trevor Nowowski, and Joe Bocce. And last week, I said I thought it'd be either Bocce or,
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John Drennan: Oh… one of the undrafted free agents, and I ended up going with Bocce. I think the other guy, whose name is, Hunter, I think he'll be on the practice squad.
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John Drennan: And finally, the defensive backs.
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John Drennan: DJ Reed, Rakuten, Roger McCrary, Nick Whiteside, Keith Abney, Chuck Clark, Avante Maddox, Thomas Harper.
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John Drennan: Christian is in, and then either Ennis Rickstraw or Khalil Dorsey?
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John Drennan: And… forcing myself to pick one. I'm gonna go with, oh, man.
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John Drennan: I'm gonna go with Dorsey and say Rick Straw doesn't make it, and I'll tell you, that's tough for me to say that.
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John Drennan: And so if we go with that, that's 27 on the defense for a total of 50, making the team, and then the punter, the kicker, and the long snapper.
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John Drennan: So, a couple asterisk points.
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John Drennan: Some of these guys could end up on IR, which means they missed the first four games. One being Isaiah Pacheco.
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John Drennan: Because I don't know what his injury is, so there's a chance he won't be on for the first 4 games. Another one's Thomas Harper, the safety, again, injured, but I have no sense of if that could be 4 weeks or more. Same thing with Christian Izion.
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John Drennan: He's had an injury. So there's a chance any one of those guys could end up on IR, meaning they miss 4 games, and somebody else can take their place on the roster, and that would be… certainly be, in my mind, one of the people who I talked about who might not make it.
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John Drennan: And then finally, there is thought Brian Branch may make it onto the team, meaning they think he can be back within 4 games, and an outside chance Kirby Joseph makes it.
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John Drennan: Under the same conditions. I doubt both of them, but if either of them make it onto the team, then we'll pull one of those defensive backs off.
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John Drennan: That I named. So with that, I'm just very excited to see what happens, and
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John Drennan: Bill and I will be back with our Wednesday post as part of our normal weekly rhythm. With that, everybody, we're close. Our next game will be September 17th, being the very first game of the season at home against the New Orleans Saints. With that, take care, bye-bye for now.
