Cade Mays‘ recovery timetable from a wrist fracture will likely lead him off the Lions’ 53-man roster to open the season. The team will be expected to place the free agency addition on IR to open the campaign, ESPN.com’s Eric Woodyard notes.
Teams have two IR-return spots they can use when setting their initial 53-man rosters. Any other player a team wishes to place on short-term IR would need to be carried on the 53-man roster by Sunday’s deadline before being shifted to IR soon after. Mays likely will receive an IR-return designation Sunday, a move that will count against Detroit’s eight-activation limit for the regular season.
The Lions have other starters set to miss time to open the season, but as of now, neither is ticketed to join Mays on IR. Neither Brian Branch nor Kerby Joseph have practiced since landing on the active/PUP list in July. Both players will likely begin the season off the Lions’ active roster, Woodyard adds. Both would shift to the reserve/PUP list — a move that requires a four-game absence — if not moved to the active roster by 5pm CT Sunday.
Mays suffered the wrist injury in early August and was given an eight- to 10-week recovery timetable. With the front end of that coming after Week 4, Lions caution is understandable.
The 2022 season introduced the eight-activation limit regarding IR. The NFL had begun experimenting with IR-return moves during the 2010s, and after the 2020 and ’21 seasons brought unlimited IR-return transactions, the league made extensive returns from the injured list possible exiting the pandemic.
The Lions gave Mays a three-year, $25MM deal with $14MM guaranteed at signing. Mays created a nice market for himself by settling in at center for the Panthers last season. Detroit acquired Juice Scruggs from Houston in the David Montgomery trade and used the former second-round pick as its center starter last week. Scruggs has been competing with Michael Niese and 2025 UDFA Seth McLaughlin for the temporary center role.
Branch is working his way back from a December Achilles tear, while Joseph is battling a degenerative knee condition. Both landing on Detroit’s reserve/PUP list would represent a significant blow, as the Branch-Joseph tandem is arguably the NFL’s best at safety when healthy. We heard in late July that Joseph was iffy for Week 1 and Branch was weeks away from practicing. Neither would be able to practice until October should the Lions use the reserve/PUP list in these cases.
While many players need time into the following season to recover from Achilles or ACL tears sustained late in the previous campaign, Joseph’s situation is foggier. A surgery to address this problem does not appear on the table for the Pro Bowl defender, who saw this nagging knee issue sideline him for 11 games last season. Joseph’s four-year, $85MM extension includes guarantees stretching into 2027.
The Lions not taking the reserve/PUP route with their safety starters would represent encouraging news, as keeping them on the active roster would point to earlier practice work and confidence in potential returns before Week 5. Chuck Clark and Avonte Maddox are expected to start at safety for the Lions in Week 1, per Woodyard. Clark had been working in place of Joseph since the Lions’ offseason program. Formerly the Eagles’ regular slot cornerback, Maddox replaced Branch late last season. Both players are tied to one-year deals worth just less than $1.5MM.
In other IR news, Woodyard predicts fourth-round rookie Jimmy Rolder being off the roster to open the season. The linebacker suffered a severe hamstring injury in mid-August, leading to the Lions signing Devin White. Mays and Rolder landing in the Lions’ two IR-return slots Sunday would make sense, and the moves would leave Detroit with six injury activations to use over the regular season’s 18 weeks.
