Wide receiver Kalif Raymond’s choice about where to play in 2026 came down to a pair of familiar options.
Raymond fielded offers from teams like the Seahawks and 49ers in free agency this month, but he whittled his choices down to a pair of NFC North teams. There was a chance to return to the Lions for a sixth season and an opportunity to rejoin a former coach in Chicago. Raymond opted for the chance to play for Bears head coach Ben Johnson, who had been the offensive coordinator in Detroit before leaving for their divisional rivals in 2025.
“I wanted to play in Ben’s offense,” Raymond said, via Dan Pompei of TheAthletic.com. “He’s extraordinarily creative, and honestly, you can be in any spot on the offense, and he will find a way to get you the ball. Just to be under him is a great privilege.”
Johnson said he likes Raymond as a veteran presence in a receiving corps topped by young players Rome Odunze and Lester Burden. He also thinks the wideout is “capable of a bigger role in our offense than what he had” with the Lions last season, so the choice to move to a new city could result in a higher profile along with a change in uniform.
Lions Clips
The lawyer representing Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold has issued another statement insisting that Arnold had no role in an effort to forcibly recover stolen goods from property rented by Arnold in Florida.
The full text of the statement from attorney Tim Jansen, as posted by Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, appears below.
“We want to address recent reporting that has inaccurately characterized Terrion Arnold’s alleged connection to this matter. Claims that Mr. Arnold was ‘at the center’ of text message communications related to this incident are entirely misleading and reflect a gross negligence in accurately reporting the facts.
“In reality, the collection of messages in question consists of more than 300 individual texts. Within that volume, Mr. Arnold’s name appears only a handful of times, approximately five, and only in passing references by third parties. At no point do these messages demonstrate that Mr. Arnold was directly involved in any conversations related to the alleged conduct.
“There are no text messages showing Mr. Arnold communicating with any individuals about this matter, nor is there any evidence suggesting his participation or involvement in the underlying events. Any implication otherwise is unsupported by the facts and unfairly misrepresents his position.
“We urge the public and media to rely on accurate, verified information rather than speculation. Mr. Arnold maintains his position that he had no involvement in this situation, and the available evidence clearly supports that conclusion.”
Birkett notes that Arnold was named by his first name nine times in the texts, which were obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Birkett adds that two of the six defendants have confessed their role in the kidnapping and assault plot to prosecutors.
Notwithstanding Jansen’s multiple statements professing Arnold’s innocence, Arnold rented the Airbnb that was allegedly robbed, twice. Arnold apparently made the initial report to police regarding the theft. Whether he was or wasn’t involved in or aware of the effort to retrieve the property is separate from whether the text messages implicate him.
As Birkett explains, the investigation continues.
One lingering question is whether prosecutors can extract evidence that could be used to charge Arnold from the six who have been charged. Starting with the two who confessed.
Again, Arnold hasn’t been charged. That doesn’t mean there’s no way he ever will be. Even if he is, it doesn’t mean any charges could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Lions General Manager Brad Holmes shrugged off talk of a rift with head coach Dan Campbell about the team’s direction by saying the two men are in “total lockstep” and Campbell sent a similar message on Friday.
The Lions are trying to rebound from missing the playoffs and that has led to a lot of changes to the roster, but Campbell said that his relationship with Holmes is in as good a place as it has been since the two began working together in Detroit in 2021.
“Brad and myself do everything together,” Campbell said at a Crain’s Detroit Business event, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “And despite what’s been out there, that’s a bunch of — listen, we’re golden, man. We are as good as we’ve ever been, we want to win and we’re going to get it right.”
Campbell expressed confidence that the two men are “going to get back to what we’ve been before last year.” Accomplishing that task will be the easiest way to put questions about their working relationship and the soundness of their plans to rest.
A bizarre case regarding alleged robberies and allegedly extreme efforts to recover stolen property has not yet resulted in charges being pursued against Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold. Arnold nevertheless continues to linger on the fringes of the case.
Via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Arnold was mentioned “multiple times” in text messages generated in connection with a kidnapping, armed robbery, and assault case that has resulted in, to date, felony charges against six different people. The text messages were obtained by the Free Press via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Arnold was not a recipient of any of the text messages.
The alleged thefts that sparked the case happened at an Airbnb that Arnold had rented in Largo, Florida. Arnold himself filed the original police report that high-end bags, guns, jewelry, a cellphone, and $100,000 in cash had been stolen.
Boakai Hilton was the alleged mastermind; the presiding judge wrote in a prior order that an ensuing retrieval of the property through allegedly illegal means resulted directly from “Arnold and his friends” deciding to “take matters into their own hands.”
Attorney Tim Jansen downplayed the references to Arnold.
“His expectations are he’s not going to be charged,” Jansen told Birkett. “He hasn’t been charged and I haven’t seen these text message[s] but they obviously have them and they haven’t charged [him]. The fact that he knows some of these people is hardly evidence he committed a crime and we believe he’s not going to be charged.”
Jansen issued a separate statement to Birkett: “We have not yet been provided with the text messages in question, and it would be inappropriate to comment on isolated excerpts without first reviewing them in their full context. We are aware that law enforcement has conducted an extensive investigation, as reflected in the 49-page criminal information. Notably, our client has not been charged, and based on the evidence currently known, we do not anticipate that any charges will be brought against him. Any suggestion of involvement appears to rest solely on the fact that our client is acquainted with certain individuals connected to this matter. Mere association does not constitute participation in criminal activity. Importantly, there is no evidence, nor any witness testimony, indicating that our client has had any involvement.”
The fact that Arnold hasn’t been charged doesn’t mean he won’t be. Prosecutors may attempt to persuade one or more of the existing defendants to flip on Arnold, if there’s any reason to believe he ordered or instigated the effort to recover the property that had been stolen from the property he had rented.
Veteran defensive lineman D.J. Reader could find a job in Baltimore.
The NFL’s transaction report for Thursday shows that Reader visited with the Ravens. It’s the first reported visit of the month for Reader, who was No. 40 on PFT’s list of this year’s top free agents.
Reader started every game for the Lions last season and finished the year with 28 tackles. He also played 15 games for the Lions in 2024 and previously appeared in 105 games for the Bengals and Texans.
Reader has 328 tackles, 12.5 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery over all of those stops.
The Ravens saw Dre’Mont Jones sign with the Patriots after free agency opened this month. Brent Urban and Taven Bryan remain free agents after playing for the team last season.
There was a moment this offseason when it looked like the Lions would have both of their starting offensive tackles back for the 2026 season, but that possibility crumbled when they couldn’t agree to a revised contract with left tackle Taylor Decker prior to his release.
Decker had taken some time to consider retirement and one of the scenarios discussed before he announced plans to play was to move Penei Sewell from right tackle to left tackle. It’s back on the table now and General Manager Brad Holmes said the option of switching Sewell’s spot made it easier to approach free agency this month.
“I think that’s the beauty of having a player like him,” Holmes said on the Lions Collective podcast. “You always have that flexibility of the possibility of him playing left tackle, He’s done it before. It’s not anything foreign to him, so, even as we’re going through free agency, we weren’t really pigeonholed like, ‘We’ve got to get a left tackle. We’ve got to get a right tackle.’ We were just like, ‘What’s the best tackle for us?’ And then we’ll kind of adjust as needed. So that’s kind of the beauty of it.”
The Lions wound up signing Larry Borom, who started 11 games at right tackle for the Dolphins last season. Borom has played other spots over the course of his career, but Holmes said he thought the veteran’s “most consistent ball” came at that position last year and that would seem to be a sign of where things are heading on the offensive line in Detroit.
Not that there was much question, but the Lions have officially brought back their kicker.
Detroit announced on Wednesday that the club has re-signed Jake Bates.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Bates, 27, had been tendered as an exclusive rights free agent, virtually guaranteeing he would be back with the club.
Bates has led the league in extra points attempted and made over his first two seasons with Detroit. He connected on 26-of-29 field goals in 2024 and 27-of-34 field goals in 2025.
The Chargers have added some depth for their offensive line.
Los Angeles announced on Wednesday that the club has signed Kayode Awosika.
Awosika, 27, spent the last four seasons with the Lions. He appeared in 13 games with four starts for the club last season, on the field for 35 percent of offensive snaps and 18 percent of special teams snaps in games played.
Awosika entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of the University at Buffalo in 2021. He’s played 50 games with 11 starts for the Eagles and Lions in his career.
Offensive lineman Ben Bartch visited the Lions earlier this month and he’ll be spending more time in Detroit in the future.
The Lions announced that they have signed Bartch on Wednesday. The team did not share any details about the terms of the deal, which was initially reported by Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Bartch entered the league as a Jaguars fourth-round pick in 2020 and played 41 games for the team before the 49ers signed him off their practice squad in 2023. He appeared in 14 regular season games and three postseason contests during his time with San Francisco.
The Lions have also added Cade Mays, Larry Borom, and Juice Scruggs to their offensive line this offseason. They help balance out the departures of starters Taylor Decker and Graham Glasgow since the end of the 2025 season.
The Lions did not make the playoffs at the end of the 2025 season and their approach to the offseason was a topic of conversation for General Manager Brad Holmes this week.
During an appearance on the Lions Collective podcast, General Manager Brad Holmes shot down the notion that there was a difference of opinion within the franchise about how to build the 2026 roster as well as how the team’s recent drafts have impacted their other moves. The Lions have seen players like Al-Quadin Muhammad, Alex Anzalone, Taylor Decker, Amik Robertson, and David Montgomery move on to other teams.
Center Cade Mays was the only addition who signed a multi-year contract with Detroit and Holmes said that thoughts about extensions for running back Jahmyr Gibbs, linebacker Jack Campbell, tight end Sam LaPorta, and safety Brian Branch — all of whom were 2023 draft picks — put the “sustainability” of the current roster in the forefront of the team’s thoughts.
“When we’re looking at the constraints we had financially entering in, we’re not going to be able to do a lot of multi-year deals,” Holmes said. “For what we’re trying to do with these extensions that we have upcoming, the implications that it would have on our cap would be — I don’t want to call it crippling, but it would have been hard to overcome. We were kind of limited in how many multi-year deals that we actually could get.”
The job Holmes has done through the draft since arriving in Detroit helped turn the franchise around and the work he can do to maintain that foundation will have a lot to do with how high the Lions can rise in the coming years.
