Ash's Practice Squad Wishlist
- Ash Soden
- Aug 27
- 7 min read
So, the Lions finally made their initial roster cuts. It was definitely more cuts than we were anticipating, with some definite shocks. However, you didn't come here to listen to me discuss that. Instead, I'm looking at the lower level, at some players who could be candidates for the practice squad. All of them will be young (i.e., they were on their rookie deals at the time of their release) and could arguably play a role for the team down the line if needed. All five players were also podcast favourites in their draft classes, which is why they might sound familiar.
DT Zacch Pickens- The first player is one of my own personal favourites from the 2023 draft class. Pickens was one of the defensive tackles I profiled for the podcast in that class, and one of those two who were then subsequently drafted by the Bears (Gervon Dexter being the other). For whatever reason, be it misuse or struggling on their bad team, it never worked out for Pickens in Chicago, so they waived him as part of their roster cuts. In this preseason, Pickens played 108 snaps, getting 3 pressures (1 sack), 2 solo tackles and 2 assisted, missed 1 tackle, and made 2 run stops.
In these two seasons in Chicago, he played fewer than 500 snaps, with more than half of those in his rookie year. He created a total of 18 pressures (with a sack in each season) on 251 pass rush snaps in his two seasons, which is a 7.1% pressure rate. This is roughly equal to Patrick O'Connor's 7.4% rate last season, and better than DJ Reader (6.5%) and Mehki Wingo (4.6%). He has also missed 10.3% of his tackles in the league, though his missed tackle rate did halve from his rookie to his sophomore year (14.3% to 5.6%). His 5.6% missed tackle rate was better than all but Reader (5%) and Wingo (0%). His 8 run stops last season would have been 4th on the team last season behind Levi (15), Alim (12) and Reader (11), and would have been double 5th place (O'Connor with 4).
Therefore, as a potential reclamation project as a rotational 3T/4i in our scheme, the team could do worse than taking a look at Pickens, especially if they are unable to bring back UDFA Keith Cooper Jr. to the practice squad.
ILB Jackson Woodard- This is someone I mentioned on the recent watchalong of the Texans preseason game, as well as being one of Ant's draft crushes in the last cycle. Woodard was a UDFA out of UNLV in the most recent class, who was initially signed by the Seahawks but was then signed by the Texans and played against the Lions last Saturday. In that game, Woodard played 15 snaps, and got a hurry, 2 solo tackles, 1 missed tackle, 2 run stops and no catches allowed in coverage.
In his last season in college, Woodard played 935 snaps (354 run defence, 82 pass rush, 499 coverage) and earned an 85.5 PFF grade. He got 20 pressures (4 sacks), made 91 solo tackles and 35 assisted tackles, missed 18 further tackles for a 12.5% missed tackle rate, made 64 run stops, and allowed a 63.3% completion rate in coverage for 1 touchdown, and 11 PBUs (4 of which were interceptions). For context, only Jack Campbell played more snaps for the Lions than Woodard did for the Rebels last season (1,047), made 1 fewer solo tackle, got 6 fewer pressures and 2 fewer sacks, and made 17 fewer run stops. At the same time, Derrick Barnes was the only Lions linebacker to allow a better completion rate in coverage (50%). On special teams, Woodard also played 151 snaps, split between the kick return, punt return, punt coverage and field goal block teams, making three tackles. Of linebackers to play special teams last year, only Ezekiel Turner made more special teams tackles (4).
Therefore, if the team is looking for a young developmental option to stash on the practice squad to train up to be a Malcolm-like jack-of-all-trades at linebacker for next season, they couldn't do much better than Woodard.
NT Cam Horsley- While we have three nose tackles currently on the 53, and I stand by my theory that Tyleik Williams will move into the DJ Reader next season, we do not have a developmental run stuffer on the roster. Horsley, a UDFA out of Boston College in this past cycle, could fill that role for us, as he was recently let go by the Titans. In this preseason, he played 85 snaps, getting 2 pressures, making 1 solo tackle and another assisted tackle, and making 1 run stop.
Last year, Horsley earned a 79.8 PFF grade, having played 465 snaps for Boston College (207 run defence, 254 pass rush, 4 coverage), getting 16 pressures, 35 solo tackles, 7 assisted tackles, missing 4 tackles (8.7% miss rate), making 31 run stops and batting 6 balls down at the line. As mentioned above, this pressure rate is nearly equal to DJ Reader's last season (6.4% for Horsley, 6.5% for Reader). The entire IDL room only batted down 3 balls in all of last season (1 each for Alim, Reader and Wingo). No defensive tackle made more solo tackles for us last season than Horsley did for Boston College (Levi was the closest with 24), or made more run stops (Levi was the closest with 20), and only O'Connor made more assisted tackles (8). Horsley's missed tackle rate was, again, better than all of our defensive tackles from last season, other than Reader and Wingo. Horsley also played on the field goal block and punt return units for Boston College, giving him some special teams value as well.
If the team wants to find a nose to sit on the practice squad and develop into a Roy Lopez-style rotational piece for the future, Horsley could fill that role while also providing some pass rush and special teams upside.
DE Isaiah Foskey- This is perhaps the most long-shot of all the players on this list, as right now Foskey is seen as a massive bust (which isn't helped by the fact he was picked a few selections before our own Brian Branch). However, he was a highly regarded edge in his class, and was beloved by our own Ry McCluskey. In his two seasons in the league so far, Foskey has played less than 150 snaps, has only made 3 pressures (all hurries in his rookie season), made 11 solo and 4 assisted tackles, a 0% missed tackle rate and 6 run stops.
In his last season as a starter (admittedly in 2022 for Notre Dame), Foskey played 563 snaps (229 run defence, 311 pass rush, 23 coverage), earning a 72.3 PFF grade. He got 33 pressures (12 sacks), made 26 solo and 5 assisted tackles, missing on only 1 tackle attempt (3.1% missed tackle rate), making 26 run stops, forcing 1 fumble and allowing a 50% completion rate in his coverage (1/2). Only Za'Darius Smith, Hutch and Paschal (by 1) recorded more pressures as a Lions edge last season than Foskey did as a starter. No edge recorded more solo tackles, and only the aforementioned edge recorded as many assisted tackles. Isaac Ukwu was the only Lions edge to better Foskey's missed tackle rate (0 misses on 3 tackle attempts), with the next closest being Trevor Nowaske's 11.8% miss rate. No edge matched Foskey's run stops, with Paschal recording the most last season with 15.
Long story short, while Foskey would definitely be a long-shot reclamation project to the nth degree, the potential upside of finding a long-term edge partner for Hutch might be worth the risk. At worst, he could be a call-up if we have an injury at edge to be a rotational piece at the rush end spot behind Hutch.
C Sincere Haynesworth- Finally, an offensive player, I hear you cry. Haynesworth is an undersized centre very much in the mould of Kingsley Eguakun (6'1" 310 to Kingsley's 6'3" 305), and was very much liked by Ant in the 2024 draft process. He was signed as a UDFA by the Saints, but he plied his trade with the Cardinals in this preseason. He played 118 snaps for them, playing the first two weeks at RG before playing their entire Week 3 game at C. He gave up 4 pressures on his 69 pass-blocking snaps for a 96.9% efficiency.
In his last season with the Tulane Green Wave, he played 907 snaps (452 pass-blocking, 455 run-blocking), earning a 79.5 grade from PFF. He started every game for them at center. That season, he gave up 10 pressures (3 sacks and 7 hurries) for a 98.5% efficiency. Only Michael Niese had a better pass-blocking efficiency on the interior for the Lions last season, and none of our starting three (Glasgow, Ragnow and Zeitler) gave up fewer pressures than Haynesworth did (45, 32 and 18, respectively). Likewise, Glasgow had a worse run-blocking grade than Haynesworth did as a starter (60.1 to 78.5). Haynesworth also played 20 field goal snaps for Tulane in 2022, giving him some special teams experience as well.
While Haynesworth has struggled with pass-blocking, given his size and step up in competition from Tulane to the NFL, we have Eguakun as the most recent success story for Hank Fraley developing players and turning them into viable players (I cite Evan Brown as another example). Signing Haynesworth to the practice squad gives the team another shot at finding a long-term replacement for Ragnow, while also providing some interior offensive line depth in case of injury.
What do you think? Do you have any other players you'd like the Lions to take a look at for their practice squad?
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look forward to your conclusions on these players/positions after the game today, ty
Thanks Ash, RE TE's - Just to reiterate what Riz said ,& its worth noting what the Lions want their TE3 /4 to do, and how many game reps they'll actually get . Parker Hesse has been taking most Reps in camp primairly as blocker ( & FB ). Mitchel hasn't performed BUT, can Block & has some ST value,& was a draft pick. Zylstra is the best receiver -,but can't block - heresey on this team. So.........bearing in what Campbell said about the WR room ie its about the best players , irrespective of position......how about.......Mitchel as TE4 , & Zylstra ( TE5 ) taking the place of of WR5 ?
Ash, thank you so much for doing these. You and the rest of the ROTL UK gang are fantastic!
Greetings, I was glad to listen to your interesting interview. The season went really well. I liked the quality of your broadcast, which application did you use for this? Is it on this list? I just want to do live broadcasts