The NFL trade deadline is set to expire on Tuesday, November 10, at 4 p.m. ET, and while the Detroit Lions have finalized a trade to acquire safety Andre Cisco from the New York Jets (and released tight end Jackson Meeks in a corresponding move), coach Dan Campbell said that general manager Brad Holmes “hasn’t stopped” exploring options to upgrade their roster.
While the Lions are getting healthier at safety—with the anticipated return of Kerby Joseph and potentially Thomas Harper—Cisco is a system
fit, understands the team’s verbiage from his time with former Lions defensive coordinator turned Jets head coach Aaron Glenn, and helps upgrade the Lions’ secondary as a whole.
“We’ve liked Cisco from afar, having played against him and then even in free agency when he was at Jacksonville coming out,” Campbell said. “So, he’s athletic, he’s versatile. He knows our system. He knows the verbiage. So, we feel like this is a guy that can help us here a little bit. So yeah, we’re excited.”
Beyond the talent Ciasco brings to the field, he also offers the Lions the flexibility to shift some of their existing players’ roles around, meaning a player like rookie Keith Abney, who switched to safety mid-season, could see his role expand back into some work in a more natural nickel role.
“Well, it gives us flexibility,” Campbell continued. “Cisco’s obviously played safety, played nickel. He can play other things on third down in your dime package. So can (Brian) Branch. We get Kerby (Joseph) back eventually here. Kerby gives you flexibility; keep him where you need him or move him back and forth. And then you mentioned Abney. Abney’s got flexibility now: nickel and safety. So, it does. It gives us flexibility, is what it does, and gives us depth too in some regard, wherever that happens at.”
As far as any other potential areas the Lions may want to upgrade, Campbell reiterated that Holmes is exploring options, but it needed to be the right fit at the right price:
“It’s about: is there a piece that could help upgrade us? Is there really, and what is it going to cost you? […] Doesn’t mean that we’re not still looking; see if there’s something else that makes sense for us. But our unit is playing pretty good football right now. [….] And so, it’s got to make sense for us, and it’s got to be something we feel like it can help us, or it gives us significant depth.”
For more information, you can follow along with all the Lions trade rumors and transactions in our tracker.
