Where the Lions roster stands: Special teams

As we start to look ahead to training camp, we're going to take a position-by-position look at the Detroit Lions roster. Last up is special teams. (The final year of each player's contract is listed in parentheses.)

Back from last season: Matt Prater (2016+TO), Sam Martin (2016), Don Muhlbach (2015)

New to the team: Kyle Brindza (2017)

There's really not much to say about the Lions' specialists this summer, and that's definitely a good thing. Last year, there was an actual competition at kicker between Nate Freese and Giorgio Tavecchio, and let's just say that could have gone better. Tavecchio probably should have won the job, but the Lions kept Freese instead, and that produced disastrous results. That was also the case when the Lions switched to Alex Henery; the kicker position was only finally settled once Matt Prater joined the team. Prater is still the starting kicker this year, with Kyle Brindza serving as the camp body.

At punter and long snapper, meanwhile, the Lions don't even have any extra players right now. Sam Martin is the lone punter on the roster, so his starting job is obviously safe, and the same goes for Don Muhlbach at long snapper. Like kicker, both of those starting spots are locked in.

Need going forward?

I suppose Brindza could get some work at punter if necessary, but the Lions could probably use a dedicated punter as a camp body to take some of the workload off of Martin. Outside of that, though, there's no real need on special teams for the Lions.

Previously: Quarterback, running back, fullback, wide receiver, tight end, offensive tackle, offensive guard, center, defensive end, defensive tackle, linebacker, cornerback, safety