The Detroit Lions have declared their inactives ahead of their 2025 Week 1 matchup with the Green Bay Packers. These divisional rivals will square off late afternoon on Sunday in Lambeau Field, where Detroit has walked away with a win in their last three visits.
“Division opponent at Lambeau, nationally televised game. I mean, we love this stuff, we live for this, so this is good, this is exciting,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said earlier this week. ”Listen, any win sets you up for the season, helps
you. And that’s really what it’s about.”
If you missed roster transactions this week or need a refresher on our updated depth chart, with position-by-position rankings as well as a visual overview, we’ve got you covered. We also delivered a plethora of game previews leading up to this game, including breaking down the Packers’ offensive/defensive schems, Honolulu Blueprint: Keys to victory, On Paper preview, the best head-to-head matchups, the best statistical matchups, a bold prediction for the game, and our POD staff pick-em predictions.
With only one player elevation for this game, the Lions roster sits at 54 players on the game-day roster, and with 48 eligible to play, Detroit needs to declare six players inactive for today’s matchup.
Lions inactives:
- RB Sione Vaki (hamstring) — Ruled OUT on Friday
- LB Trevor Nowaske (elbow) — Ruled OUT on Friday
- DL Chris Smith
- DL Mekhi Wingo
- EDGE Tyrus Wheat
- S Thomas Harper
Unsurprisingly, the Lions are relatively healthy to open the season, and for their two injured players (Vaki and Nowaske), they signed running back Jacob Saylors to the active roster, and elevated linebacker Anthony Pittman from the practice squad for this game.
Additionally, the Lions only have eight offensive linemen on their roster right now, and with all eight being active to achieve the roster bonus, that means 2024 fourth-round pick Giovanni Manu will make his NFL debut in this game. Originally slotted for the OT4 role, Manu gets a bump up the depth chart after Jamarco Jones was placed on injured reserve this week. However, it’s still possible that Manu reps behind the position-versatile Kayode Awosika, who has previous experience at offensive tackle.
Packers inactives:
- OL Donovan Jennings
- TE Ben Sims
- DL Warren Brinson
- DL Barryn Sorrell
- CB Nate Hobbs
- S Zayne Anderson
The loss of Hobbs could be a big one, as he was expected to start for the Packers at outside corner. He injured himself early in training camp and only just started practicing this week, but this is a blow to their secondary.
