After several weeks of setbacks on defense, the Detroit Lions are finally getting a big addition.
The team announced on Tuesday that linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez was coming off the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, paving the way for his return to the field for the first time in nearly a year. Rodriguez has been an important reserve and special teams player and appears ready to return for the home stretch of the season.
Lions Bring Back Malcolm Rodriguez
The 26-year-old linebacker has been out since suffering a torn ACL last Thanksgiving, which led to a long recovery. Rodriguez saw time on defense last season, making 43 tackles with two sacks and a pass defensed in 10 games prior to his injury.
The Lions have suffered several key injuries this season, especially in their secondary, but Rodriguez’s return could bring an important element back to the defense. Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard has been high on Rodriguez, praising his preparation and focus and saying last year that he believes Rodriguez is good enough to start.
âIâm always reminded, even last year (2023), before you guys all said it — Malcolm Rodgiuez is a starter in my mind,” Sheppard said last season as the team’s linebackers coach, via MLive.com. “And I have never wavered from that since his rookie year, when he took over and hit the scene running and took every veteran spot in the room until right now. Heâs a starting-caliber linebacker, and now heâs ascending to a place where a lot of people are viewing him a on the topper end of linebackers of the league when you really watch him play.â
Rodriguez has also earned praise from special teams coordinator Dave Fipp for his contributions on return and coverage units.
âHeâs a great player, or has been a very good player on teams, Iâll say that for sure. Anytime you get a good player back, that obviously helps the whole group,” Fipp said, via SI.com. “So, itâll be good. The better player thatâs out there, the less load everyone else has to carry. So, it helps pass the load or share the load around.â
Lions Facing Unfamiliar Spot
After winning the NFC North in back-to-back seasons leading up to this year, the Lions have stumbled this season and fell out of the playoff bracket entirely with last week’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
They have an opportunity to rebound on Sunday against a struggling New York Giants team, though head coach Dan Campbell said they need to turn things around on offense. Campbell took over play-calling duties from John Morton earlier this month, but said his own calls contributed to the loss against the Eagles.
Campbell added that the Lions have yet to play their best football this season.
âIâm still to that point where I feel like we still have not quite played our best game, our best games. And Iâm talking about in all three phases,â Campbell said, via MLive.com. âThatâs the one thing, win, lose, where you just want to feel like, alright man, all three units contributed and we really complemented each other. Chicago was pretty dang good, Washington was good last week, but there were some things we wished we could have done a little bit better. It wasnât like that in all three units, and that was good, believe me. But I just really feel like we havenât played our best ball yet, collectively across all three units.”
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