The Detroit Lions have been facing a bit of a depth crunch in the last few weeks at wideout, and despite that playing out, the team has released a key depth option on offense.
Late last week, it was revealed that the Lions would be releasing wideout Marvin Hall. Hall, signed over a year ago, has provided some great depth for the Lions passing group and has been a deep ball specialist for the team since he was added to the roster and managed to stick around.
The release was first reported by Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network on Friday night.
#Lions are planning to waive veteran WR Marvin Hall, source says. Surprising, considering he’s only a few weeks removed from a 113-yard game. Detroit wants to give some of the younger guys a look. Hall could garner interest on waivers.
Detroit quickly confirmed the news over the weekend.
The #Lions announce roster moves: t.co/QBpRXvSSTS
As a whole, this was a surprising bit of news for the Lions considering what Hall did in a short amount of time in Detroit. While he wasn’t one of the most targeted players on the offense, he still played a big role from time to time and was a player who stepped up in the absence of other injured wideouts in the recent past.
The release of Hall leaves the Lions with Marvin Jones and Quintez Cephus, Danny Amendola and Mohamed Sanu. Kenny Golladay remains hobbled with a hip injury. In his last game, Sanu came on strong so it’s possible with his emergence there wasn’t a role for Hall anymore. That might be the only explanation for the abrupt release at this point from the Detroit perspective.
Marvin Hall Speaks After Release
Though the news likely had to come as a shock to Hall, he was still taking a positive approach to the news immediately after it happened. Hall tweeted that he’s trusting God as it relates to what comes next, which is an excellent and mature approach.
God,
I Trust You! 🙏🏾
Hall was always a professional player on the roster and this type of response following a shocking release only proves it more. Lions fans will miss him for this classy demeanor. It will be fascinating to see if a wideout needy contender takes a flier on Hall for the stretch run and potential playoff push.
Marvin Hall Career Stats
Hall, a wideout who competed with the Washington Huskies in college, bounced around on several teams and practice squads before finding his best home in Detroit. He played with the Atlanta Falcons the longest and caught a touchdown pass there from Matt Ryan. Coming into his Lions career, he had caught 3 touchdowns in the league for 410 yards, but in Detroit, Hall had a long reception of 58 yards in 2019 and has managed to get loose multiple times down the sideline to make impressive catches last year. Safe to say he earned his spot on the roster where many would not have seen a path for him coming into last season.
This season, Hall has made a smaller statistical impact, but he still has gone for 290 yards and 2 touchdowns. To see the Lions moving on is a bit surprising, but perhaps the team feels better about the progress of rookie Quintez Cephus and wants to work him into the offense more late in the season.
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Lions Reveal Release of Productive Veteran Wide Receiver