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One thing you can count on with the Detroit Lions is that they are never, ever boring. Follow the latest news including injuries, roster moves and more here daily from Oakland Press beat writer Paula Pasche. Plus you'll find regular commentary about the team.

9/22/2014

Detroit Lions — DeAndre Levy seems logical choice to fill in for Tulloch


ALLEN PARK — With middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch out for the season with a torn ACL, the Detroit Lions defense will obviously have to make adjustments.

Coach Jim Caldwell on Monday said they haven’t determined if DeAndre Levy will take over Tulloch’s spot.

Levy filled in for the final three quarters in Sunday’s 19-7 win over the Packers and played incredibly well. The only hitch was getting the microphoned helmet to work initially. Even then Levy maintained his poise and had the defense running smoothly.

“We’ll look at all of our options and see what happens,’’ Caldwell said on Monday.

It seems Levy would be the logical choice.

Tahir Whitehead, who plays on the outside, is much less experienced on the defense. In fact this is his first season getting defensive snaps.

Ashlee Palmer, who also plays the outside, has never played in the middle for the Lions.

Travis Lewis is the backup middle linebacker on the depth chart, but he wasn’t active on Sunday because of a groin injury.

Rookie outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy is on short-term injured reserve which means he can’t start practicing until after the sixth game and can’t play until after the eighth game.

In fact any linebacker that has been with the Lions since 2010 has not played in the middle because Tulloch had never missed a game.

Placing Tulloch on IR creates a roster spot so the Lions could sign a free agent. 
It just makes sense, though, that they’d stick with Levy in the middle after Sunday’s performance.

(Follow @PaulaPasche on Twitter. Order her book,  “100 Things Lions Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die’’ here. It’s also available at bookstores.)


1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Shamari Benton is the logical choice, he is familiar with the defense and can back up the Sam and Mike LB positions.

4:49 PM 

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