Lions roster preview: Joseph vs. Moore and depth at safety

As we head toward a new season, All Lions is looking at each member of the 53-man roster to recap their 2023-24 season and look ahead to the upcoming campaign. Today, we focus on safety depth. Check out our past stories on each member of the offense , punter Jack Fox , the plan at kicker , the defensive linemen , the linebackers and safeties Brian Branch , Kerby Joseph and Ifeatu Melifonwu .

The Detroit Lions have three really strong safeties atop their depth chart but it seems likely that they’ll keep at least one more safety heading into the new season, and a few guys are fighting for that spot.

The Lions kept five safeties on last year’s initial roster, although Brian Branch ended up playing mostly cornerback. Now that he’s expected to play more safety, it would make sense to trim that a bit but will they? Here are the candidates fighting for a job.

Related: Lions roster preview: Strong season should earn Ifeatu Melifonwu more playing time in 2024

C.J. Moore

The 28-year-old has spent four seasons with Detroit but was suspended all of 2023 for violating gambling rules. Now back, he’s trying to reclaim a roster spot.

Over his prior four seasons, Moore has appeared in 56 games, racking up 48 tackles, defending two passes and intercepting one pass.

He’s playing pretty sparingly on defense but has been OK in his limited role. However, he’s been a really solid special teamer. In fact, in 2021, he was one of the top special teams tacklers in the league.

However, after a year away, he’s going to have to earn his spot. He did have three tackles in the first preseason game but also missed two and will have work to do the rest of the preseason.

Brandon Joseph

Seemingly the front runner for the fourth and possibly final safety spot, Joseph joined the Lions’ practice squad last season after going undrafted.

Coaches have praised Joseph’s improvement over his short NFL career thus far and he’s had some flashes throughout training camp and the first preseason game.

He was one of the highest-graded Lions in the preseason-opener , and head coach Dan Campbell also shouted him out for his performance in that game.

Not only did he snag an interception in the game but he also had three tackles, didn’t miss any and had a stop — a tackle constituting a “failure” for the offense.

Joseph doesn’t have a spot locked down yet but the 23-year-old certainly seems to be trending that way.

Loren Strickland and Chelen Garnes

The pair of undrafted rookies may be fighting more for a potential practice squad slot than a spot on the initial roster, realistically, but a late injury could change all of that.

Strickland had a better first preseason game, although he also got 10 more snaps than Garnes.

Strickland did allow a 13-yard catch on his only target but otherwise played pretty well, succeeding on his lone tackle attempt.

As mentioned, Garnes didn’t get as much action in the preseason-opener and over half of his snaps were against runs. However, he missed his lone tackle attempt, which hurt his overall grade.

Overall, the Lions have a really strong top three with good competition and a mix of some experience and youth in the depth spots. While they could maybe use a little more competition down at the bottom, their top four are mostly set and all strong, so they should have one of the better safety units in the league this season.