Malik Jefferson: What the Lions are getting in their new linebacker

The Detroit Lions added veteran linebacker Malik Jefferson to the training camp roster on Saturday. Jefferson joins the Lions after playing for the Dallas Cowboys in the 2023 season and is expected to be in uniform for Monday’s practice session, which will be the first fully padded practice.

What are the Lions getting in Jefferson?

Jefferson, 27, is the textbook definition of an NFL journeyman. Detroit is his sixth team in as many seasons. After being drafted out of Texas by the Cincinnati Bengals in the third round of the 2018 draft, Jefferson has struggled to find any permanence:

2018 – Bengals

2019 – Browns

2020 – Chargers

2021 – Colts

2023 – Cowboys, after spending most of the 2022 season on Dallas’ practice squad

Jefferson has been active for 39 career regular-season games, but he’s seen action on defense for just 21 total snaps. The 6-foot-2, 240-pounder (as listed by the Cowboys) does have a lengthy history playing special teams with over 620 career reps.

I covered Jefferson in his 2019 season in Cleveland, a year in which he played exactly one defensive snap in nine games. The Browns claimed him off waivers from the rival Bengals at the 53-man roster cutdown, hoping to catch something with Jefferson after Cincinnati abandoned their third-round pick after just one underwhelming season.

Jefferson played quite a bit on Cleveland’s special teams but did so without much notoriety. The Browns, whose GM at the time was now-Lions special assistant John Dorsey, cut him that November .

Given that five different teams have tried to make something useful out of Jefferson’s impressive speed and length and have all failed, it’s a safe presumption that Jefferson’s struggles with diagnosing plays and staying off blocks that plagued him collegiately at Texas have never gone away. He’s an athletically gifted project that just hasn’t developed more than as a special teams player.

Jefferson is an unexpected addition to the Lions linebacking corps, which already has a clearly established top five all returning from 2023, plus another recent veteran addition in Ben Niemann . Undrafted rookie DaRon Gilbert has also shown some ability. It’s a crowded spot for a journeyman like Jefferson to quickly make his mark.