7 hours Ago
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Detroit Lions plan to release veteran linebacker and special teams standout Jalen Reeves-Maybin before the new league year begins, per NFL Network. Reeves-Maybin, 30, was a team captain and regarded as one of the best special teamers in the league. He made the Pro Bowl and was a second-team All-Pro in 2023.
But Reeves-Maybin missed seven games with a neck injury this past season. He also notably serves as the NFL Players Association’s president. Reeves-Maybin has spent all but one season of his eight-year career with the Lions.
He was a fourth-round pick back in 2017 out of Tennessee. He spent his first five seasons in Detroit, one with the Houston Texans, and then the last two back around these parts. Reeves-Maybin made it back for the final two weeks of the regular season, and then the playoff loss to the Washington Commanders.
The Lions have some decisions to make at linebacker, with Derrick Barnes one of their more important pending free agents. Ezekiel Turner and Ben Niemann are other linebackers about to hit the open market. According to Over The Cap, this move will create $1.
89 million in cap space. It was coincidentally this time last year from the scouting combine that Reeves-Maybin inked a new two-year deal to stay in Detroit. Reeves-Maybin played 159 defensive snaps and 210 on special teams across 10 games last season.
Those 159 reps at linebacker were the most he had seen since 2021, in the first year of head coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes' regime..
