The Detroit Lions announced a couple roster moves Sunday ahead of the start of training camp. The team placed defensive lineman Romeo Okwara, cornerback Jerry Jacobs and rookie defensive lineman Josh Paschal on the physically unable to perform list, and rookie wide receiver Jameson Williams and linebacker Natrez Patrick were placed on the non-football injury list.
Williams, the No. 12 overall pick in the draft, tore his ACL while playing for Alabama in the college National Championship Game in January. Since his injury occurred in college and not while he was playing in the NFL, he's on the NFI list, not PUP.
"We'll have a plan for him moving forward," Lions head coach Dan Campbell said of Williams at Detroit's mandatory minicamp in June. "I don't see him being ready for training camp. I don't see that. I am very hopeful, but I don't see it. We're going to do this thing the right way and when he's ready, he'll be ready. But, no I don't feel like you're going to see him Day 1."
Okwara, who led the team with 10.0 sacks in 2020, played in just four contests last year due to a torn Achilles suffered Week 4 in Chicago.
Jacobs was a nice story for the Lions a year ago, earning a roster spot as an undrafted rookie out of camp and becoming a reliable starter on the outside before suffering a torn ACL in December in Denver.
Paschal, Detroit's second-round pick out of Kentucky, was dealing with an injury at the end of Detroit's offseason training program in June that kept him off the field.
"We're trying to be smart with him," Campbell said of Paschal. "He's got a lower extremity injury but just trying to be smart and there'll be a couple of guys that we'll back off today just to be smart and get them out of here healthy. But, all good."
It's unclear if Pascal's addition to the PUP list is his rehabbing the same injury or if it's something else he's working through.
Each player can come off these lists at any point before the start of the regular season, but they cannot practice until then. They continue to count toward the 90-man roster.
