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The Detroit Lions don't have to get down to 75 players until Tuesday afternoon, but they decided to start making their roster cuts on Saturday. Specifically, they released the following six players:
RB Steven Miller
WR Conner Vernon
OT A.J. Dalton
OG Alex Bullard
DE Kris Redding
DT Gregory Hickman
In addition to letting these six players go, the Lions also freed up another roster spot by putting wide receiver TJ Jones on the reserve PUP list. This means that he will be out for at least the first six weeks of the regular season. He could return later in 2014 if his shoulder is healthy (he had surgery on it in June), but he could also end up missing his entire rookie season.
With seven roster spots being freed up, the Lions are now down to 82 players. They never filled the roster spot that was cleared when cornerback Drayton Florence was released earlier in the week, so they only have seven more cuts to go before Tuesday's deadline.