Analyzing Detroit Lions Initial 53-Man Roster

The Detroit Lions have officially revealed their initial 2023 53-man roster.

Transcript

00:00 John, simply what is your reaction to the Lions season opening 53 man roster?

00:04 Yeah, but you know, real interesting.

00:07 A couple hours after the official deadline, the Lions finally released

00:10 officially their, their first 53 man roster.

00:13 And I think the reaction that many people had was boy, is it unbalanced

00:17 with only 21 players on offense versus the 29 players on defense?

00:22 You look at it and you say, wow, the Detroit Lions kept a lot of players

00:27 that many people would have felt maybe they would have moved on from.

00:30 Including keeping several more linebackers than you would have thought, including

00:34 keeping several more defensive linemen and cornerbacks.

00:37 So you realize that this football team starts the year with only two running backs.

00:42 Now they're going to add a third running back.

00:44 It's going to happen.

00:45 But when you look at it, keeping six linebackers on this roster, you look at a

00:50 team last year that struggled on defense.

00:52 It might be an overcorrection to keep that many talented players on defense.

00:56 When you look at both Aquarius making the team, the defensive back, Emmanuel

01:01 Mosley, now coming off of the pup list and joining the official roster, maybe

01:06 forcing some other players away from this football team, but when you look at it,

01:10 only 10 reserves on offense when you look at football teams that field 11 starters.

01:16 But I do think that once some of the injured players end up on some IR lists,

01:22 then you may see the likes of Craig Reynolds, who I think is the biggest

01:26 surprise that the team released.

01:28 I think he may end up back sooner rather than later on the roster.

01:32 At this point, Vito, I think the football team is really solid.

01:37 They had a lot of spots, including the defensive line with several edge

01:41 rushers, a lot of depth on this football team, which hasn't been

01:44 seen in several years past.

01:46 So overall now heading into Kansas city week, one of the regular season,

01:50 the 53 man roster set.

01:52 And right now there's a plethora of defensive players.

01:55 John, thanks for all your time.