Lions Athletes Who Might Not Be Back in 2024

Brad Holmes and the team’s management office will have plenty of time to focus on the next summer now that the Detroit Lions have been eliminated from the postseason.

In addition to adding players for a potential postseason run, Holmes and company should be occupied with keeping hold of those who were essential to their team’s playoff success this year.

Holmes will also need to break off relationships with some of the organization’s current members and make a number of difficult decisions.

Let’s look at five Lions players who might not be able to rejoin the team in 2024 without further ado.

Josh Reynolds, wide receiver

Reynolds was one of Jared Goff’s most dependable targets in the regular season, accumulating 40 receptions, 608 yards, and five touchdowns. During their tenure with the Rams (2017–2020), he and Goff developed a close relationship that has undoubtedly helped the two of them throughout the previous three seasons in Detroit.

That being said, Reynolds won’t be known for any of it. He will be remembered for severely disappointing the Lions in the NFC championship game, most notably for intercepting a ball from quarterback Jared Goff during a third-quarter fourth-down conversion attempt. It was the first of a string of bad things that happened to Detroit during the quarter, and Goff & Co. never bounced back.

Reynolds completed the postseason game with three interceptions in all, and his poor performance cost him a miserable PFF overall rating of 51.6.

This may have been the wide receiver’s final game with the Lions, as he will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason.

LG Jackson Jonah

Since the Lions selected Jackson in the 2020 draft, he has been a vital component of the offensive line.

But since he will be a free agent in the offseason, his time in the Motor City may be coming to an end.

Jackson, who was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2021, saw a decline in performance in the previous season while playing in a career-low 12 games and 798 offensive snaps. In addition, he had a career-worst run-blocking mark of 58.2 in 2023 after getting PFF run-blocking grades north of 70.0 in 2021 and 2022. In addition, he gave up eight quarterback hits and 24 total pressures, which led to PFF giving him a horrible overall grade of 59.7.

This decline in Jackson’s output suggests to me that the Lions will have a new starting left guard in 2024.

Vaitai Halapoulivaati OL

Ever since arriving in the Motor City, Vaitai has struggled to maintain his health.

But throughout the last two seasons, the injury bug has really shown up for the seasoned lineman. He dressed for only six games in 2022 and 2023 combined, and in 2022 he did not record a single snap.

He did, however, earn respectable overall grades in 2021 and 2023 (68.4 and 68.3, respectively). Still, I don’t think there’s a better moment than now for Holmes to cut ties with the powerful lineman, as he will be a free agent this coming offseason.

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Graham Glasgow, OL

Holmes made a wise under-the-radar free agent signing in Glasgow this past offseason.

The seasoned offensive tackle, who played his first four seasons in Detroit, made a second trip back to Motown in 2023 when he joined the Lions. Denver was his home for the previous three seasons.

Glasgow played both guard and center, and he was a great plug-and-play player along the offensive line’s interior. Most significantly, he solidified the right guard position by taking over as Detroit’s full-time starter at the position from the frequently injured Halapoulivaati Vaitai.

He gave up just two sacks in 1,061 offensive snaps overall, and he was very good at creating rushing lanes for the Lions’ backfield duo of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. Pro Football Focus gave him an 82.1 for his run-blocking performance. Additionally, he scored 75.1 overall on the well-known analytics website.

The Lions undoubtedly want him on their roster come 2024. But last summer, Holmes signed him to a one-year contract. Therefore, there’s no assurance that the astute guard will return to Detroit for the upcoming campaign.

DB Ceedy Duce

In what would prove to be his final season in the Motor City, Duce—who originally joined the Lions as C.J. Gardner-Johnson—struggled to stay on the field. He only committed to a one-year contract the previous summer, and in 2023, he fell short of expectations.

The seasoned defensive back did not play again until the Lions’ regular-season finale against the Vikings after rupturing his pectoral muscle in Week 2’s game against the Seattle Seahawks.

During his meager playing time (three games during the regular season), Duke recorded three passes defensed, one interception, and a 72.7 overall PFF grade.

Those were not bad numbers. He did, however, give a bad game in the conference title game against the 49ers and Deebo Samuel. In addition to missing three tackles and receiving a 15-yard unnecessary roughness call against Samuel, he also had the lowest overall PFF grade on the squad (33.9). Even worse, he and Samuel had a verbal altercation prior to the game, and he lost the on-field conflict with the versatile receiver.