The Saints announced a few roster moves ahead of Sunday’s opener against the Lions.
Running back Audric Estime has been placed on injured reserve. He was ruled out on Friday with a thigh injury and will have to miss four games before he will become eligible to return to action.
The Saints elevated running back C.J. Donaldson from the practice squad. Alvin Kamara is listed as questionable to play with a knee injury, so Donaldson may be joining Travis Etienne and Kendre Miller as the available backs for New Orleans.
The Saints also elevated wide receiver Kevin Austin and signed tight end Treyton Welch to the active roster from the practice squad.
Lions Clips
Five years after entering the NFL as a fourth-round pick, Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown won’t need much time in his sixth season to make history. Again.
St. Brown already has the record for the most catches by any player through five seasons, with 547. It’s an average of 109.4 per season. And his production through five years will make it easy to set the record for the most catches through six seasons.
Via NBC Sports research, St. Brown needs only 33 catches in 2026 to break the current record of 579, which was set last year by Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson.
St. Brown is a four-time Pro Bowler, a two-time first-team All-Pro, and a one-time second-team All-Pro. Coupled with Jameson Williams, the Lions have one of the top one-two punches at the receiver position. Throw in running back Jahmyr Gibbs, and it truly is amazing that the Lions not only missed the playoffs in 2025 but also finished last in the NFC North.
That should change in 2026, especially with the Lions getting the benefit of a fourth-place schedule. With the Bears drawing the Texans, Eagles, and Seahawks and the Packers getting the Jaguars, Cowboys, and Rams, the Lions will face the Titans, Giants, and Cardinals.
In a division that had first place and fourth place separated by only two games, those three games could be all the difference the Lions need.
In three seasons, Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs has become a force of nature, despite sharing the load with David Montgomery. On Sunday, Gibbs embarks on his role as the unquestioned main cog in the Detroit backfield.
With a single touchdown against the Saints in the Week 1 game at Ford Field, Gibbs becomes the sixth member of the 50-in-50 club.
Fifty scrimmage touchdowns in 50 career regular-season games.
The others to do it were, per NBC Sports research, Jim Brown, Marcus Allen, Chuck Foreman, Larry Johnson, and Steve Van Buren.
Gibbs already holds the all-time record for total touchdowns in a player’s first three seasons, with 49. Given what he has done and what the Lions expect him to do, his new contract (at $22.5 million per year) could be the best dollar-for-dollar value on a second deal that the NFL has ever seen.
His 2026 debut will be tucked into the cluster of 1:00 p.m. ET games. Gibbs will have his first shot at showing what he can do as the unquestioned top tailback in Detroit on a national stage in five days, when the Lions face the Bills on the brand-new grass at the brand-new stadium in Buffalo.
One day before their first game of the 2026 regular season, the Lions have cleared a sizable chunk of cap space.
And all that it implies.
As reported by the folks at Spotrac, the Lions have restructured the contracts previously signed by receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and tackle Penei Sewell.
For Brown, the Lions converted $26 million of base salary into a signing bonus. That creates $20.8 million in cap space.
Sewell’s contract had $18.6 million in base salary converted into a signing bonus. The move opens up another $14.8 million in cap space.
Most if not all veteran contracts give the team the ability to restructure the deal, every year. And it’s a simple move. The chunk of salary that becomes a signing bonus is then spread over five seasons, with 80 percent of the payment being pushed into future cap years.
With the cap always going up, the move reduces the relative impact of those cap dollars, while giving the team more flexibility in the current year.
For the Lions, that means another $35.8 million in cap space available for 2026. Which officially puts them on the unofficial Maxx Crosby watch list, along with the Cowboys.
Crosby has a $30 million salary in 2026. And the Raiders already tried to trade him once this year, to the Ravens. If the season unfolds for Las Vegas in the same way that most seasons since 2002 have gone (with the exception of 2016 and 2021), the Raiders may decide to try to trade him again — and Crosby may welcome an in-season move to a contender.
When the Lions traded running back David Montgomery to the Texans in March, Juice Scruggs was viewed as mostly a throw-in along with the fourth-round pick and seventh-round pick Houston had sent to Detroit. Scruggs was a disappointment as a 2023 second-round pick of the Texans, and he was expected to have to compete just to make the Lions’ roster.
Instead, Scruggs will be the Lions’ starting center on Sunday against the Saints.
Scruggs was working more at guard than center for most of the offseason, but Cade Mays, who was expected to start at center, injured his wrist a month ago. Mays is now on injured reserve, and Scruggs said he’s getting used to his role as the No. 1 center even if it wasn’t a role he was expected to play.
“A lot more comfortable, for sure. Things have slowed down. When I got thrown in at center at first it was like, kind of overwhelming, but I’m definitely feeling more comfortable and ready to play for sure,” Scruggs said. “You’ve just got to be ready. You never know when your number is going to get called, so you prepare like a starter, always.”
Although Scruggs played mostly guard for the Texans, he did start eight games at center, so he’s not new to his position. Even if he’s new in Detroit, and playing a part few saw him playing when he arrived in the Montgomery trade.
The Lions dropped a player from their active roster on Friday.
They announced that they have released defensive lineman Levi Onwuzurike. Onwuzurike would have been guaranteed his entire salary for the season if he was on the roster for Week 1, so a return after the Lions face the Saints could be in the cards.
Onwuzurike was a second-round pick for Detroit in 2021, but he’s missed two of the last five seasons with injuries. A back injury kept him out in 2022 and he missed all of last season with a torn ACL.
When healthy, Onwuzurike has 68 tackles, 3.5 sacks and a forced fumble in 42 regular season appearances. He also has five tackles in four playoff games.
The Lions also announced that they have signed defensive lineman Tyre West to their practice squad.
When Saints running back Alvin Kamara sprained his MCL in mid-August, there was word that he would miss about a month because of the injury.
Kamara could wind up in the lineup at the short end of that window. Kamara returned to practice this week and head coach Kellen Moore called him questionable to face the Lions in Detroit on Sunday.
Travis Etienne will be making his Saints debut and the free agent’s arrival in March clouded Kamara’s future with the team. He wound up signing a revised contract to remain with the team in July, however, and he’ll give the Saints a pair of options at running back if he is ready to go this weekend.
Defensive end Cam Jordan (hamstring) was ruled out earlier in the week, but reporters at Friday’s practice sent word that he was back on the field. Tight end Oscar Delp (hamstring) and running back Audric Estime (thigh) will also miss the game.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell said on Wednesday that wide receiver Tom Kennedy would have a role in Sunday’s game against the Saints and that comment foreshadowed a roster move on Thursday.
The team announced that they have signed Kennedy to the 53-man roster. Kennedy was on the practice squad and the Lions had an open spot, so there was no need for a corresponding move.
Kennedy has been with the Lions since 2019 and has bounced between the practice squad and active roster a number of times. He has 18 catches for 231 yards in 30 career games.
Kennedy has also seen time as a returner and that is likely the area where he’ll contribute to the Lions’ cause in the opener.
Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs is a popular choice as the first overall pick in fantasy drafts, and he thinks he’s the right choice.
Asked if he would draft himself if he had the No. 1 pick in a fantasy league, Gibbs answered, “For sure, yeah. That’s easy.”
Gibbs said he’s aware of the spotlight on him from fantasy players, many of whom are banking on him to have a very big year.
“It’s cool,” Gibbs said. “I’m either going to make a lot of people happy or mad, so we’ll see.”
The Lions traded David Montgomery away this offseason, leaving no doubt that Gibbs will be the focal point of the running game, but he downplayed how much his role will change.
“I guess I’m getting most of the carries but it’s nothing I haven’t done before,” Gibbs said.
The Lions made Gibbs the highest-paid running back in the league this offseason, and they’re expecting him to be better than ever. So are fantasy owners.
Saints defensive end Cam Jordan’s final NFL season will start with him on the sideline.
Head coach Kellen Moore said at his Wednesday press conference that Jordan will not play against the Lions in Week 1. Jordan hurt his hamstring in early August and is not ready to return to action at this point.
There was better news about another longtime Saint. Running back Alvin Kamara returned to practice after missing the last few weeks with an MCL injury. Moore said that Kamara was a limited participant and that the team will see how he responds as they make plans moving forward.
Tight end Oscar Delp (hamstring) and running back Audric Estime (thigh) were also out of practice for the Saints.
