Getty P.J. Johnson makes a tackle against the Patriots in the 2019 preseason.
The Detroit Lions continue to shuffle things around on their defensive line after the first full week of training camp, and have revealed a couple more new additions to the roster.
While the Lions didn’t have a departure on Saturday morning in the form of a cut or a release, they did have a player who was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list.
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Saturday, August 7, the team revealed they were putting Nick Williams on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Additionally, they revealed they were bringing in a pair of defensive tackles to the roster in Michael Barnett and P.J. Johnson.
#Lions have signed free agent DTs Michael Barnett and P.J. Johnson and have placed DT Nick Williams on Reserve/COVID-19.
Having a couple of players come to the roster who have experience up front will provide the team depth at a critical time. Detroit has faced some players who are banged up in the trenches so far, so they continue to add players to supplement them at a key time early in camp.
Barnett and Johnson’s Career Stats and Highlights
One of these players is a former Lion, while the other has no ties to the organization at all. Barnett went undrafrted out of Georgia in 2020, and signed with the New England Patriots last season. He spent last season in New England before being released in April of 2021. A powerful nose tackle, Barnett had 47 tackles and 2 passes defended for the Bulldogs in college.
Johnson, on the other hand, has history in Detroit as the team’s seventh-round pick in the 2019 NFL draft out of Arizona. He was amongst the team’s final cuts in 2019, and signed with the Los Angeles Chargers soon after. From there, he joined the Seattle Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers where he had a practice squad stay with the Cardinals. Thus far, Johnson has not registered an NFL stat in spite of some decent stats in college. With the Wildcats, he put up 31 tackles, 3 sacks, 8.5 tackles for-loss, 1 fumble recovery and 2 forced fumbles in his single season of work.
Here’s a look at some highlights of Johnson from college:
Both players have a long way to go in order to impress the team for roster inclusion or a spot on the practice squad.
Lions Defensive Line Looking Deep for 2021
If there was a spot on the Detroit roster that should have been primed for some sort of upgrade this offseason, it was the defensive line. The Lions lacked depth in the middle, but adding Levi Onwuzurike and Alim McNeill will help that in a big way. The deeper the Lions get in the middle of the line, the better off they will be in terms of getting better presence on the outside as well as depth.
If Onwuzurike was to be able to become a star, that would be a huge development for the Lions and their defensive line depth up front. Already, the depth has been upgraded, which is good to know ahead of a season in which the Lions have to get tougher up front on defense for a complete turnaround.
The hope for the Lions is that the team has enough defensive line depth to get by this season. As the camp ailments and struggles pile up, keeping folks fresh is a major concern. Barnett and Johnson will help the team do that in the short term.