The Detroit Lions watched the NFL trade deadline pass without adding any new players, but did make one speedy addition to the roster the following day.
The Lions announced on Wednesday that they signed linebacker Ty Summers to the active roster, calling him up from the practice squad. The move gives the team more depth and versatility at a key position while filling a roster spot that recently opened due to injury.
Lions Bring Back Ty Summers
The Lions have already moved Summers around a lot this season, releasing him from the active roster in October and signing him to the practice squad the following day.
Summers will now re-join the active roster, filling a spot that opened when the team put offensive lineman Christian Mahogany on injured reserve.
The speedy linebacker has appeared in 86 games since coming into the NFL as a seventh-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in 2019. He has 90 career tackles, playing mostly on special teams. Summers appeared in three games for the Lions this season, appearing in 53% of the special teams snaps with no time on defense.
The Lions struggled on defense in Sunday’s 27-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, which was especially frustrating for head coach Dan Campbell given that the Lions were coming off a bye week.
Campbell took blame for not having the team ready, saying the Vikings caught them unprepared.
“Very disappointing,” he said, via SI.com. “We knew what we were going to get going into this. We knew there would be some wrinkles, but there was nothing that we hadnât seen before. We did not â we didnât handle it. We did not handle it well. I know we got beat on a couple of them, just physically beat on a couple that we expect not to. We expect more out of our guys. But some of it, we act like it was something exotic â it wasnât. We just didnât handle it well. We werenât on the same page. We were not on the same page.â
Campbell also said the Vikings were able to make some key plays on special teams that gave them momentum in the win. Summers could be part of the solution as the Lions try to bounce back against a shorthanded Washington Commanders team, which just lost starting quarterback Jayden Daniels to an elbow injury.
More Roster Moves for the Lions
The Lions made some other roster moves this week, releasing a pair of players who suffered injuries during the preseason. The team terminated the contracts of offensive tackle Justin Herron and tight end Kenny Yeboah, who had both been on injured reserve since the summer.
As Jeff Risdon of USA Today’s Lions Wire noted, Yeboah appeared to be in line for an important role before he went down.
“Yeboah was expected to compete as the team’s primary blocking tight end after signing as a free agent, but the former Jets TE injured his knee in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game,” Risdon wrote. “Yeboah did reach an injury settlement with the Lions.”
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