The Detroit Lions introduced Saturday afternoon a bevy of roster strikes. A couple of of them have been procedural—inserting kicker Michael Badgley on injured reserve following his season-ending damage, including Christian Mahogany to the Non-Soccer Sickness record, and coming to an damage settlement with waived offensive lineman Matt Farniok.
However amongst these transactions, the Lions additionally introduced that they’ve signed veteran linebacker Malik Jefferson.
Jefferson was a former third-round choose of the Cincinnati Bengals again in 2018, however he lasted only a single 12 months earlier than being waived by the group in ultimate roster cuts in 2019. Since then, he’s bounced round to the Browns (2019), Chargers (2019, 2020), Titans (2020), Colts (2021), and Cowboys (2022-2023). Over that point Jefferson has solely made 38 sport appearances with 33 of these coming in his first three years within the NFL.
Nearly all of that have has come on particular groups. His most lively season was in 2020 with the Chargers, the place he performed a complete of 236 particular groups snaps—tied for fourth-most on the group.
That’s Jefferson’s most probably path to the Lions’ 53-man roster. Detroit is fairly nicely set with their prime 5 linebackers: Alex Anzalone, Jack Campbell, Derrick Barnes, Malcolm Rodriguez, and Jalen Reeves-Maybin. Nonetheless, they might wish to carry a sixth for particular groups utilization, very similar to they did with Anthony Pittman final 12 months.
Earlier this offseason, the Lions signed veteran linebacker Ben Niemann to carry further competitors to that room. Now it seems Jefferson will enter the fray with a chance to make some noise.
As for Mahogany, the lively/Non-Soccer Sickness record operates very similar to the lively/Non-Soccer Damage record. He’s eligible to return off the record each time he’s wholesome, and he nonetheless presently counts towards the 90-man roster.
