The Detroit Lions may not be done looking for help at wide receiver.
After roster cut-down day, they kept only four receivers on the active roster, and the depth chart behind Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams looks thin.
Isaac TeSlaa brings upside into his second season, but he had just 16 catches as a rookie. Tay Martin is next in line on the active roster, though his NFL resume is light - only three career catches - and he’s expected to do most of his work on special teams.
There’s also a hole in the return game. The Lions moved on from Greg Dortch, who had been the leading candidate to handle punt returns, and that leaves them without a clear answer there on the active roster.
That setup makes the release of Darius Slayton by the New York Giants worth watching. On Monday, the Giants cut ties with Slayton ahead of the second season of the three-year, $36 million contract he had signed.
He was due $13 million this year. New York had made him expendable after adding Darnell Mooney and signing former franchise favorite Odell Beckham Jr.
Detroit is now one possible landing spot, especially because Slayton has a connection to new Lions passing game coordinator Mike Kafka. Kafka spent the previous three seasons with the Giants as offensive coordinator and also served as interim head coach last year after Brian Daboll was fired.
Slayton has spent all seven of his NFL seasons in New York and has 296 catches for 4,435 yards and 22 touchdowns. He’s topped 700 receiving yards in four seasons, with his best year coming in 2023 when he finished with 770 yards. He has never reached 800.
From a football fit standpoint, he makes sense. Slayton has mostly played on the boundary, but he’s also logged plenty of time in the slot, giving Detroit some flexibility in how it would use him.
For a Lions group that still has questions around TeSlaa after an uneven training camp, Slayton could step in as a proven third receiver. He also brings a little bit of return experience, with one punt return and nine kick returns on his career ledger.
The biggest hurdle is money. Detroit is still working to get back under the salary cap, and a player with Slayton’s profile could eat up a meaningful portion of whatever space the Lions create.
That may make a deal difficult. But if the finances can be sorted out, Slayton would give the Lions a much sturdier receiver room heading into the regular season.
In Other News...
Lions Receiver Decision Suddenly Carries Bigger Weight For The Opener
The Lions receiver room looked a little thinner than expected when Detroit trimmed down to four wideouts on its initial 53-man roster for the 2026 season, but the first-week picture is already taking shape. Dan Campbell said veteran Tom Kennedy is expected to play in Week 1, and the staff is looking at him not just as a depth option on offense but as a possible kick returner too.
Dave Fipp has also weighed in on the return-game plan, underscoring that kickoff and punt duties are part of the bigger roster puzzle rather than separate afterthoughts. With only a handful of receivers on the active roster, Kennedys role carries more significance than it might have in camp, and the opener will offer the first real look at how Detroit intends to balance his value on offense with what he can do on special teams. [Read more 🡒]
Jared Goff And Detroits New OC Face Immediate Pressure In Week 1
The Lions have spent the offseason trying to keep the offensive machine humming, and the early signs from Jared Goffs partnership with new coordinator Drew Petzing have been encouraging. Dan Campbell has praised the way the two have worked together, with Goff also speaking positively about Petzings play-calling and the confidence he has brought to the job, a useful sign for a team that wants continuity even with a new voice shaping the offense.
Week 1 against the New Orleans Saints will be the first real test of how quickly that relationship translates from the meeting room to the field. Petzing does not need to reinvent anything for Detroit, but he does need to show he can fit into what Goff does best while still leaving his own imprint, and that balance is already going to matter when the lights come on. [Read more 🡒]
Jared Goff Is Quietly Closing In On Rare NFL Company
Jared Goff has given the Lions something that is easy to miss when the offense is humming and the conversation moves elsewhere: steadiness. Since 2021, he has started 69 consecutive regular season games for Detroit, and he has layered on a stretch of 23 straight games with a touchdown pass, the kind of run that keeps him in the same neighborhood as some of the leagues most durable and productive passers.
He is not in line to chase down Drew Brees NFL record of 54 straight games with a touchdown pass, but Goff is already positioned to keep nudging his own streak into rarer air. If he can keep finding the end zone through the season, he would place himself among the top 10 longest such runs in league history, another quiet marker of how stable the Lions passing game has become with him at the controls. [Read more 🡒]