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USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Jeff Risdon

Presenting the Detroit Lions initial 53-man roster for 2023

It wasn’t an easy process, but the Detroit Lions have whittled the preseason 90-man roster down to 53. The cutdowns began over the weekend and were finalized at Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline.

The 53-man roster will change quickly, of course. The 6-game suspension for WR Jameson Williams, which takes effect after the deadline transactions are processed, ensures that the team will add at least one player not currently on the roster (be it a player the Lions cut or an outsider) to replace him. But for now, we know pretty closely what the Lions roster will look like when Dan Campbell’s Detroit team heads to Kansas City to kick off the 2023 regular season on September 7th.

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Here is the initial 53-man roster for the Detroit Lions in 2023:

Quarterbacks

(Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)

Jared Goff

Teddy Bridgewater

*Hendon Hooker – on the non-football injury list for at least the first four weeks

Any drama here went away when Nate Sudfeld tore his ACL in the preseason finale.

Running backs

David Montgomery

Jahmyr Gibbs

Jason Cabinda (FB)

The only real question here was how many the Lions would keep. Not many expected them to only keep three backfield players. Craig Reynolds being released as the third RB is a surprise, though he could return on Wednesday.

Wide receivers

Amon-Ra St. Brown

Josh Reynolds

Kalif Raymond

Marvin Jones

*Jameson Williams

Antoine Green

No surprises with the top five here. Williams is on the suspended list and not on the 53-man active roster.

Green won what appeared to be a hotly contested battle with Dylan Drummond and Chase Cota for the final spot. Maurice Alexander was also in the mix.

Tight ends

(Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Sam LaPorta

Brock Wright

James Mitchell

Another spot where there wasn’t really much debate over who would make it and who would not.

Offensive line

Taylor Decker

Penei Sewell

Frank Ragnow

Jonah Jackson

Graham Glasgow

Halapoulivaati Vaitai

Colby Sorsdal

Matt Nelson

The Lions are starting out with just eight. Expect several players they cut to land on the practice squad. It’s still undetermined who will start at right guard between Big V and Graham Glasgow.

Defensive tackles

Alim McNeill

Isaiah Buggs

Brodric Martin

Levi Onwuzurike

Benito Jones

Jones was on the roster bubble but played his way onto the team with a good summer. Onwuzurike’s impressive return from a back injury is a wonderful development.

EDGE

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Aidan Hutchinson

Charles Harris

Josh Paschal

John Cominsky

James Houston

Romeo Okwara

Julian Okwara

Both Okwara brothers making the final 53 might be a bit of a surprise, but the Lions depth here is envious.

Linebackers

Alex Anzalone

Jack Campbell

Derrick Barnes

Malcolm Rodriguez

Jalen Reeves-Maybin

Anthony Pittman

The top five were pretty well-established. Keeping Pittman for special team purposes is a mild upset, but he’s quite good there.

Defensive backs

Because the Lions kept several guys who can–and will–play both CB and safety, the secondary is all lumped together.

Cam Sutton

Jerry Jacobs

C.J. Gardner-Johnson

Emmanuel Moseley

Kerby Joseph

Tracy Walker

Brian Branch

Will Harris

Khalil Dorsey

Steven Gilmore

Ifeatu Melifonwu

The somewhat surprising activation of Moseley from the PUP list was a welcome curveball from the prediction process.

Gilmore, Dorsey and Melifonwu all making it defies several projections to the contrary.

Specialists

Junfu Han-USA TODAY Sports

Jack Fox

Scott Daly

Riley Patterson

Patterson beat out Parker Romo in a camp competition that can best be described as uninspiring, but Patterson does have playoff-proven ability. Fox will handle both punting and kickoff duties.

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