Getty Kyle Sloter during a preseason game.
The Detroit Lions have officially lost yet another quarterback in a season where injuries to top players have become a common occurrence.
Saturday, the team revealed that Driskel was heading to injured reserve with the hamstring injury which kept him out of Thursday’s game against the Chicago Bears. Replacing him on the roster will be Kyle Sloter, whom the Lions signed off the practice squad of the Arizona Cardinals.
#Lions have signed QB Kyle Sloter to the active roster from the Arizona Cardinals practice squad and placed QB Jeff Driskel on Reserve/Injured.
In addition, the Lions signed QB Joe Callahan to the practice squad.
For Driskel, this effectively ends his season and ensures the Lions will see rookie David Blough until Matthew Stafford can come back to action. When that might be is anyone’s guess, but Detroit had to have liked what they saw out of Blough in the meantime this week.
The team also added Joe Callahan to their practice squad.
Kyle Sloter Stats
An undrafted free agent out of Northern Colorado in 2017, Sloter has bounced around the NFL a bit early in his career. He was an offseason member of the Denver Broncos in 2017, but then bounced to the Minnesota Vikings, where he was on the roster. This past season, he was with the Cardinals and was stashed away on their practice squad before the Lions poached him.
In 2017 while playing for Northern Colorado, Sloter put up solid numbers, passing for 2,656 yards, 29 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions. He didn’t get a ton of love in the lead into the draft, but with quarterback play key in the league, it makes sense that he got the shot that he did.
Sloter hasn’t registered an NFL stat as of this point
Jeff Driskel Played at Florida, Then Louisiana Tech
As for Driskel, before his stint with the Lions begun this season, in college, Driskel played for Will Muschamp at Florida for four years, and had his pinnacle in college come when he led the 11-2 Gators to the Sugar Bowl where they played the Louisville Cardinals and lost the game.
After injury, Driskel lost his starting job and elected to transfer. He departed for Louisiana Tech where he had a great finish to his career, putting up 4,026 passing yards and 27 touchdowns in 2015. In total, Driskel had quite a productive college career, putting up 7,437 yards and 50 touchdowns to just 27 interceptions. He then became a sixth round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
Driskel Has Decent NFL Stats
Following college, Driskel was selected by the San Francisco 49ers but did not make the team. He latched on with the Cincinnati Bengals where he would become the emergency starter in October of 2018. Due to the loss of Andy Dalton, Driskel was pressed into duty and did a nice job for the Bengals, putting up 1,003 yards, 6 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Though his team was 1-4, Driskel showed the goods to being a capable backup who can give the team a chance in situations just like the one he will face in Detroit.
Driskel has also rushed for 130 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground, proving just how difficult he can be to game plan for. He can scramble a bit, which is an added wrinkle to his game which gives him a bit of an advantage in the pocket against teams that haven’t seen him.
With the Lions, Driskel put up decent numbers, passing for 685 yards, 4 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. He made critical mistakes to lose the Lions a game in Washington which overshadowed the decent way he played in the other two contests.
Arguably, with Sloter on the roster now and Blough looking the part of an NFL backup, Driskel could be on the outs with the Lions as a pending free agent.
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