Lions Instructed to Pursue Former Rival Cornerback Within Free Agency

The Detroit Lions have plenty of changes they can make in order to turn things around for the future, and ahead of the offseason, the team is beginning to think about what they might be able to do in order to improve their fortunes on the field.

Detroit will have a good chance to change their fortunes with free agency, and will have no shortage of players to target at various spots that will help their efforts to improve in 2022. Whether the offense or defense needs to see this talent infusion is perhaps the biggest debate, but it’s clear either way that the Lions need big help for their roster in many places.

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Recently, Pro Football Focus and writer Brad Spielberger took a look at picking out a player for every team in the league to chase in free agency. For the Lions, the pick was a defender, and specifically a former rival from the Chicago Bears in Bryce Callahan.

Spielberger thinks the Lions have plenty of needs across the roster, but thinks another big addition to the secondary could help the team out in a major way for next year. As he explained, Callahan has decent numbers in coverage when healthy prior to 2021.

While Callahan was hurt, he could be an intriguing player to add to the mix. Just 30, the team could certainly have some good years left with Callahan and he could add to the depth at cornerback in a division he already knows pretty well from the past.

Callahan’s Stats & Highlights

An undrafted free agent scoured by the Bears in 2015 out of Rice University, and he wasted no time making an impression in Chicago and sticking. With the Bears, Callahan made his mark in a big way with 4 interceptions and 4 sacks in four years of work. After that, Callahan signed in Denver with Vic Fangio where he was a starter for the Broncos. He collected 2 interceptions during his time there. Here’s a look at some of his best work from the 2020 season:

As a whole, Callahan has 194 tackles, 6 interceptions and 5 sacks to his credit in the league. Those totals are pretty decent for a player who few likely expected to stick around long. Callahan might earn himself a decent payday in 2022 as a result.

Lions’ 2022 Free Agency Primer

How can the Lions manage to make some improvements? For starters, the team will have to think about adding some offensive weapons to the mix. Detroit’s wideout group has lagged behind because of a lack of depth most of all in 2021, so making sure a top-flight wideout comes into the mix via trade or signing to help Jared Goff might be the top priority for the team. From there, the Lions need to think about bolstering the defense. Help could be needed up front and on the back end and potentially at linebacker as well. Cornerback also figures to be a spot of interest for Detroit.

In his first offseason, Lions general manager Brad Holmes shied away from big deals, focusing instead on smaller deals to help supplement his roster. Several of those deals have panned out, from names like Kalif Raymond to Charles Harris. The same approach could be expected this offseason, so the Lions might make one bigger splash while choosing to focus on multiple other smaller splashes to help supplement things.

Callahan could be a smaller splash, but it could become one that makes decent ripple effects for the Lions and their needy defense in 2022.

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