The Detroit Lions announced that they have made two roster moves ahead of their Week 11 game with the Jacksonville Jaguars, one on each side of the ball.
The Detroit Lions are taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 11, and on Saturday, they made two roster moves to account for injuries: signing linebacker Ezekiel Turner to the active roster and elevating tight end James Mitchell.
In each of the previous two weeks, the Lions have purposefully kept a spot open on their 53-man roster, signed linebacker Abraham Beauplan, subsequently released him the following Monday, and then signed him back to the practice squad on Wednesday. By taking this route to and from the roster, the Lions were not forced to use any of Beauplan’s practice squad elevations, leaving him with three available on the season.
Last week, the Lions used a practice squad elevation on Turner, and while he only played on special teams, the recently signed linebacker out-snapped Beauplan. Turner played in all four phases of special teams, including the important role of personal protector (PP) on punts, filling in for Jalen Reeves-Maybin who was placed on injured reserve in Week 10.
By signing Turner to the active roster, if he follows the “Beauplan path,” he will still have two practice squad elevations remaining, which perfectly covers the minimum amount of games Reeves-Maybin is required to miss. It’s also worth noting that linebacker Ben Niemann showed up with an ankle injury on Friday and is currently listed as questionable.
With Sam LaPorta injured and unable to play, the Lions will turn to Brock Wright as TE1, Zylstra as TE2, and Mitchell will hold the TE3 role in this upcoming game. This will be Mitchell’s first regular season game of the 2024 season.
The Lions drafted Mitchell in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft and he has 29 games of experience over his first two seasons in the league. In training camp, Mitchell was in a battle for the Lions TE3 role—that initially went to Parker Hesse and is currently held by Shane Zylstra—while Mitchell landed on the practice squad. Following the conclusion of the game, Mitchell will revert back to the Lions practice squad, having used one of his three elevations for the season.
