The Detroit Lions are making some changes to their backfield in the days before their final preseason game.
The Lions parted ways with a promising running back who also spent part of the 2025 season with the team, moving on after he suffered a serious injury in training camp. The team made a quick addition amid other injuries in the backfield.
Lions Part Ways With Kye Robichaux
The Lions on Monday waived running back Kye Robichaux, who had suffered a foot injury after the team’s first preseason game. Head coach Dan Campbell at the time announced that Robichaux had broken a bone.
“God bless him, dude, he’s got a foot…looks like he may have broken a bone in that foot,” Campbell said.
The Lions announced a series of other moves in their backfield on Monday, placing veteran Raheem Blackshear on injured reserve and signing running back Roydell Williams.
The Lions will face some other difficult decisions in the backfield, including the fate of running back and special teams regular Sione Vaki. He missed the team’s second preseason game after suffering an injury, head coach Dan Campbell said.
“He woke up yesterday, and he just had kind of a knot in his back here,” Campbell said. “It’s not major, but it’s enough to where, it’s one of those bad spasms to where we were hoping we could get it out of there. Give him some stuff to hopefully loosen it out. We ran out of time with it.”
Vaki also missed time with a broken nose and poked eye after a defender’s hand got under his facemask during a practice. Campbell noted the running back’s injury struggles, saying the team hoped to see him in the second preseason game.
“Now the good news, we would have loved to have seen him. I told him that. He wanted to play,” Campbell said. “But also, he got some really good work, coming off of a broke nose, a punched out eye. I’m like, ‘I think we’re good Vaki for a little bit here.’ We’ll get this to calm down. He’ll be ready to practice this week, I would anticipate. I think we’ll be okay there.”
Kye Robichaux Also Suffered Injury With Lions in 2025
This is now the second year that the Lions have parted ways with Robichaux after an injury. The team announced last August that they waived then-rookie Robichaux with an injury designation. The former Boston College running back was not expected to make the final roster at the time, with SI.com’s Vito Chirco predicting he would fall just behind fellow rookie Anthony Tyus III.
“As for Robichaux, he spent his first two seasons at Western Kentucky followed by his final two at Boston College. In his final campaign with the Eagles, he recorded 744 yards and 10 touchdowns on 175 carries,” Chirco wrote. “At this present juncture, I believe that Tyus is ahead of Robichaux on the team’s RB depth chart.”
Robichaux generated some buzz after his four-year collegiate career, where he rushed for 2,342 yards and 24 touchdowns, adding 44 receptions for 368 yards and two receiving touchdowns.
Lions Part Ways With Promising RB After Injury Setback