The Detroit Lions are coming in the 2015 NFL regular season bearing a team ridden with injuries and last-minute trades and roster changes. The first NFL game of the Detroit Lions this regular season will be against the San Diego Chargers on Sunday (September 13) at 4:00 pm ET. The match will be hosted by the San Diego Chargers at the Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. With the current state of the Detroit Lions roster, sports analysts believe that the match will see the San Diego Chargers emerge victorious.
Earlier this week, the Detroit Lions made a move to accomplish two things: secure the depth and strength of its NFL roster as well as create a salary cap space for the team this fall. These were achieved by restructuring the contract of Golden Tate III, which resulted in the Detroit Lions having $2.1 million worth of salary cap space - one that had been highly needed by the NFL team to be able to beat the compliance deadline that saw the group go over the salary cap limit by $200,000 initially. The move also guaranteed that the wide receiver will stay with the Detroit Lions until 2018, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Meanwhile, fans and followers of the Detroit Lions might be disappointed over the possibility of DeAndre Levy being absent in the NFL team's Sunday match against the San Diego Chargers for Week 1 of the regular season. The injury report of the Detroit Lions on Friday disclosed that Levy revealed that Levy suffered from a hip injury and still has not recovered, which makes his presence in the San Diego Chargers match doubtful. Should Levy not be able to play this Sunday, then the Detroit Lions would have to send in Josh Bynes to the starting lineup. Apart from Levy, the Detroit Lions also lost right guard Larry Warford and defensive tackle Caraun Reid due to the ankle injuries suffered by both NFL stars. These injuries will then see Manny Ramirez for Warford and Laken Tomlinson for Reid during the game against the San Diego Chargers this Sunday.
In addition to expanding their injury list, the Detroit Lions saw the departure of tight end Joseph Fauria on Thursday. Fauria then signed with the Arizona Cardinals who believe that the former Detroit Lions star has the capacity to boost their NFL team's chances of excelling this season. "He [Fauria] has a unique skill set, and when you're not able to utilize everything that's available to you, obviously you have to find other ways to do it," shared Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell, referring to the abilities of Fauria, according to MLive.com's Kyle Meinke. Caldwell added, "So he brings to the table a little something that you can't teach. He has height and he can position himself, particularly in the red zone, extremely well."
