One preseason game is in the books and another one will be after tonight. As a result, it's time for the second edition of my 2011 Detroit Lions 53-man roster prediction.
Last week I went through the roster and broke everything down position-by-position. I outlined why I went with certain players and discussed potential battles for spots that were looming. This week I've simplified things a bit since I only made one change to my 53-man squad: Aaron Brown is in; Derrick Williams is out.
The reason for this change is based mainly on what happened against the Cincinnati Bengals last week. Williams dropped two straight passes as the Lions were driving down the field. He did rebound nicely on the very next play with a 32-yard grab, and he did have another catch for 19 yards that was nullified by a Brown penalty.
While Williams showed he can make plays and has reportedly been having a solid camp, I think his inconsistency is ultimately going to be why the Lions go in another direction. The fact that Rashied Davis has seemingly locked up a spot doesn't help Williams' chances, nor does the fact that Brown showed he can run and catch the ball. Brown had 21 yards on four rushes last week, and perhaps more importantly he had five catches for 49 yards. A running back shouldn't be doing a better job of catching the ball than a receiver.
The next two weeks could obviously change things -- perhaps on both sides of the ball -- but for now I've got Brown beating out Williams for a spot on the team.
Below is a look at my full 53-man roster prediction (players in bold are the ones I have making the 53-man squad).
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QB Matthew Stafford RB Jahvid Best FB Jerome Felton WR Calvin Johnson TE Brandon Pettigrew OT Jeff Backus OG Rob Sims C Dominic Raiola |
DE Kyle Vanden Bosch DT Ndamukong Suh LB DeAndre Levy CB Alphonso Smith S Louis Delmas K Jason Hanson P Nick Harris LS Don Muhlbach |