Detroit Lions Preseason Week Three: Winners and Losers, Cut List Edition

The Detroit Lions-Cleveland Browns game is over, and a lot of burning questions have been settled.

Can Jahvid Best produce big plays? Yes.

Has Matthew Stafford grown as a player? Definitely (and he didn't even have to separate a shoulder to impress us this time).

Is the defense there yet? Not quite.

The sentiments are mostly the same, and with a few exceptions, we know who the impact players are going to be for the Lions this season.

So instead, with the first round of cuts coming up soon, let's focus on the bottom half of the roster. With rosters soon to be cut down to 75, who made a case to keep a spot, and who could be on the way out based on their performance against Cleveland? 

Winners

Randy Phillips

Okay, okay, let's be fair here. With the way Randy Phillips has been playing, he hasn't been on anybody's cut list since about his second day of camp.

But at the same time, remember that Phillips was brought in as an undrafted free agent a couple of days after training camp started, and to very little fanfare. In fact, the bigger news in that transaction was that Marquand Manuel was released to make room for him.

Nobody really knew who Randy Phillips was at the time, and even less people cared. He was a warm body to fill an empty space in camp. Cut list fodder, nothing more.

Fast forward, less than a month later. Phillips has outperformed every draft pick except the first-rounders, as well as most of the veteran secondary members. A starting spot that was widely expected to go to C.C. Brown or Ko Simpson could now belong to Phillips.

The Cleveland game was the exclamation point on Phillips' outstanding camp and preseason, as he notched six tackles and forced a fumble that was scooped up by Chris Houston for a touchdown.

Aaron Brown

This is a difficult call right now. Brown's position has more or less been in limbo since Jahvid Best was drafted, and the reason why is simple.

In short, anything Brown can do, Best can do better.

That, combined with a lack of discipline and playbook knowledge, would spell the end for Brown, I thought.

Then I watched him run for two touchdowns and 34 yards on five rushes, with a 16-yard reception for good measure.

More importantly, he did a good job of finding seams on kick returns, and his ability to keep a roster spot will likely be tied directly to his value on kick returns.

Dan Gronkowski

This is a slightly bittersweet analysis for me. See, Gronkowski showed the ability to be a fantastic pass-catching tight end against Cleveland. There's almost nothing he could have done better to insure himself a roster spot.

And that's exactly why Thursday's game against Buffalo will likely be the last time we see him in a Lions uniform.

See, the Lions have arguably the deepest tight end corps in all of football right now. The top three guys, Brandon Pettigrew, Tony Scheffler, and Will Heller, are all starting-quality players. Pettigrew was last year's 20th overall pick, and the other two were starters on their former teams.

On top of that, there's utility man Jake Nordin, who brings value by playing tight end as well as various backfield positions.

Then there's Gronkowski, a seventh round pick in 2009 who is beginning to come into his own and could be a fantastic player in a year or two. He needs some work on his blocking, but that can be coached. And because there's too much talent in front of him, he won't get the chance in Detroit.

He'll get cut, not because of his performance, but simply because the Lions have no place to put him. And some team, somewhere, will have him claimed VERY quickly. Good for him, bad for the Lions, who have to see another great seventh-round pick go to waste.

Willie Young

Speaking of great seventh-round picks, how about Willie Young?

The undersized defensive end leaves Ford Field coming off his second consecutive game-clinching fumble-sack. And yes, he was in there against third-stringers and dead men walking, but he still made plays.

Big plays. Game-winning plays, with the clock ticking down. Twice.

The 250-pound Young isn't going to plug any holes with his size, and he's actually smaller than some running backs, so it's a mistake to think of him as anything but a third-down speed rush specialist.

But what's wrong with that? The Lions, with their aggressive defensive scheme, could use a guy who can pin his ears back and zip around the edge to pressure the quarterback.

Young is showing the ability to do just that. 

Jerome Felton

In the late stages of Saturday's game, I had two independent thoughts about the Lions' play.

Thought No. 1: "Wow, the Lions are really struggling in short-yardage situations. They could really use a good third-down back."

Thought No. 2: "Jerome Felton is really mowing guys down out there. The way he's running through tackles, I'm surprised he doesn't get more goal-line carries."

A little while after I'd had those thoughts, they started to blend together. Jerome Felton could be a good third-down back, which is something the Lions need.

So far, he's been used primarily as a blocker, but the "blocking fullback" mold is outdated in today's NFL, and because of that, Felton has been a popular choice for the Lions' cut list.

However, when given the ball, Felton earned over six yards per carry against the Browns, most of them on runs up the middle. If he can reinvent himself as a "two-yard lock" back, someone who can hit a crowded line and push it beyond the first-down marker, he might just stick around. 

Losers

Tim Toone

Toone started out the preseason in Pittsburgh looking fairly sharp. He was shifty on punt returns, fast on kick returns, and showed good hands over the middle.

To reward his play, Jim Schwartz gave him a greater role against Denver, letting him field the opening kickoff. In large part, he was a bit disappointing.

Against Cleveland, he was invisible. No stats. No catches, no returns, nothing. The closest he got to making some noise was when he was thrown a fade route in the end zone. And throwing the ball on a fade route to a 5'10" receiver is basically a wasted play.

Now, in Toone's defense, part of the reason he didn't see any punt returns is because the Browns only punted once in the game. But on that punt, Dennis Northcutt was back to receive.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it seems like Mr. Irrelevant has fallen out of favor in Detroit. In what was supposed to be the "dress rehearsal" game, Toone barely even made an appearance on the field.

Toone likely won't be involved in the first round of cuts, but if he doesn't show something against Buffalo, he might end up just as irrelevant as advertised. 

Derrick Williams

Taking Derrick Williams' body of work into account, from last season to this preseason, he is out. 

Like Toone, Williams was given approximately no looks on offense or special teams against Cleveland. Worse yet, Brown was given four kick returns to Williams' zero. And Brown looked good on almost every one of those returns (as well as with the offense).

Williams? His most notable play of the preseason is fair-catching a punt on his own three-yard line, showcasing exactly the kind of mental lapse he claimed he was past.

If the battle was Williams against Brown, Williams loses. If it was Williams against the rest of the receiving corps, Williams loses again.

The only player Williams has shown the ability to beat consistently is himself. So don't expect him to beat the cut list. 

Caleb Campbell

If you've read my preseason work, you know I'm a big fan of Caleb Campbell, and I really, really want to see him succeed. The Lions, the NFL, all of professional sports needs to see his story and smile.

Indeed, he's been given the opportunity. Campbell has slid around on the depth chart in camp amidst injuries, and has therefore had the opportunity to step up.

But I haven't seen it yet.

Now, Campbell hasn't been bad, necessarily. He does look a bit overmatched sometimes on passing plays, which is a little surprising for a guy who played safety in college. But he's learning a new position, and he has to react differently than he's used to, so I give him a pass.

What I needed was to see him make a play. With Jordon Dizon and then DeAndre Levy going down with injuries, Campbell's reps have been naturally increased. And yet I haven't even been able to spot him in the vicinity of making a play.

For a longshot like Campbell, average isn't good enough. He needs to step up and make a case for himself, and quick.

Here's hoping. 

Landon Cohen

Before I start ripping the man, let me point out the positives from the game.

Cohen made a great play to peel off of his block and make a sweeping tackle on a screen pass to James Davis. Davis had lots of green in front of him, and Cohen assuredly saved a first down, maybe more.

Other positives: Cohen did 50 bench press reps at the combine.

Seriously, people need to stop talking about that. Maybe the reason we're still talking about what Cohen did at the scouting combine two-and-a-half years ago is that he hasn't done anything notable in his playing career.

That is a trend that has continued this preseason, as Cohen's name has basically only come up in reference to his lack of discipline.

"Cohen the Barbarian" faced an uphill battle to begin with, fighting for a roster spot on a line which has brought in major improvements from outside. In response, Cohen has found himself on the wrong side of too many defensive penalties, and the right side of far too few good defensive plays.

Which, frankly, makes his nickname rather fitting. Barbarians are strong, but undisciplined. And I shudder to think what one of them would look like trying to decode an offense.

If you need a hint, though, just watch Landon Cohen. 

Drew Stanton

Another invisible man makes an appearance.

Nothing was more telling about what Schwartz and Co. think about Stanton than the amount of time he was given on the field against Cleveland.

Stanton was kept out of the game until he finally came out to run the "victory" formation.

When he has played, he has looked like the worst quarterback on either team.

Last year, I thought he was the Lions' best quarterback in the preseason, but that has changed drastically this year.

Is he "cut list" bad? Probably not, especially with the Lions' penchant for getting their quarterbacks injured.

But the fact that we're talking about it at all is is sign that Stanton's days are numbered.