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The Detroit Lions finally have 90 players on their roster again. They had been holding steady at 89 players after making some adjustments to their roster following last month's mandatory minicamp, but the team returned to 90 players on Tuesday by signing cornerback R.J. Stanford.
Stanford beat out two other cornerbacks for the Lions' final roster spot during a workout on Tuesday. According to Dave Birkett, Javier Arenas and Ethan Davis also worked out for the Lions, and it turns out that Stanford previously worked out for Detroit in 2014. In other words, the Lions were already somewhat familiar with him.
Stanford joins the Lions after playing for the Carolina Panthers from 2010-11 and the Miami Dolphins the last three seasons. He actually signed with the Cincinnati Bengals during the 2014 offseason, but he didn't make the team coming out of training camp. As a result, he became a free agent and later rejoined the Dolphins for the final five games of the season.
So, why did the Lions opt to add a cornerback with their vacant roster spot? With Nevin Lawson coming off a season-ending injury, he could potentially start training camp on the PUP list, and even if he's good to go, I suppose cornerback is one position where you can never have enough depth. Stanford's chances of sticking around on the 53-man roster don't look great given how many roster spots are already accounted for at cornerback -- Darius Slay, Rashean Mathis, Alex Carter, Quandre Diggs and Lawson likely aren't going anywhere if healthy -- but I suppose anything can happen in training camp.