Lions made several roster moves on Saturday

Oct 1, 2022 - 8:32 PM

The Detroit Lions have made a series of roster moves ahead of their Week 4 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks. Here’s a quick breakdown of what happened on Saturday:

Signed to the active roster from the practice squad

• OL Dan Skipper
• K Dominik Eberle

Waived from the active roster

• TE Shane Zylstra
• OG Drew Forbes

Elevated for Week

• WR Tom Kennedy
• WR Maurice Alexander

Injury Designation change

• DJ Chark downgraded to OUT

Skipper has been elevated twice this season as a replacement for starting left guard Jonah Jackson. With Jackson already ruled OUT for Week 4, Skipper was signed to the active roster and is once again expected to start at left guard.

Starting kicker Austin Seibert injured his right groin in Week 3 and was unable to get healthy enough to play this week, but the fact that they signed Eberle instead of just elevating him, suggests Seibert’s injury could extend beyond just this week.

Eberle was added to the Lions practice squad in early September after Aldrick Rosas landed on the practice squad injured reserve and will be making just his second career NFL start.

In 2019, as a senior at Utah State, Eberle successfully converted 21 of his 24 attempts (87.5 percent) but he went undrafted and eventually landed on the Raiders practice squad in 2020. In 2021, he spent time on the Panthers and Texans practice squads and was a late-season elevation for Houston after their kicker was injured. In that game, Eberle went five of five on extra points, and two of three on field goal attempts, including a successful kick from 51 yards, with his only miss coming from 52 yards.

With four tight ends and 10 offensive linemen, Zylstra and Forbes became victims of the numbers game. The Lions have several players unable to play—six, including Chark, have already been ruled out this week—and Zylstra and Forbes were simply at the bottom of deep position groups.

Chark has been working through an injured ankle—the same one he had surgically repaired last year—and while he was expected to play on Sunday, the team must not have liked what they saw from him on Saturday and downgraded him to out.

With Amon-Ra St. Brown also ruled out with an ankle injury, the Lions elevated wide receiver Kennedy and Alexander to fill in for depth.

Look for the Lions to start Josh Reynolds at the WR-Y, Quintez Cephus at the WR-X, and Kalif Raymond in the slot, with Kennedy and Alexander filling out the depth.