Detroit Lions Safety Elevated From Practice Squad For Third Time

The Detroit Lions announced one Week 5 NFL roster move before facing an Arizona Cardinals team that is reportedly set to trade wideout Marvin Harrison Jr.

According to the team, veteran safety Jalen Mills has been elevated from the practice squad to the active roster. It his third elevation of the season, meaning the Lions will have to sign him to the active roster if they wish to utilize him again.

Safety Brian Branch returned to practice this week and could be in line to return to the active roster after the team's Week 6 bye week. Mills has provided depth amidst injuries to Branch, Kerby Joseph and Avonte Maddox, but may not be as useful once Branch returns.

Earlier this week, head coach Dan Campbell explained he simply wanted defensive players in the right position and to focus this week on punching the football out and avoiding self-inflicted wounds.

Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard reiterated that the small details are important, and when the roster fails in practice, the coaching staff is going to remain diligent in coaching up the fine details.

“It sounds easy, like a lot of this stuff," said Sheppard. "That's what I'm saying. I'm being very cautious of, 'Oh, you do this, you do that,’ because it's lip service. It sounds easy. But those are the things that bite you, the things that you assume are easy, the things that you think that you may not necessarily take but take for granted. They're going to do that. Yeah, absolutely. The player even. I'm going to, 'Oh coach, I know I'm supposed to be there.' 'Then why on Sunday aren't we there? So no, we're going to do it one more time. We're going to do it one more time because it matters. It matters that your six-inch alignment is off.

"It matters because of the angle that you're creating, the disadvantage you're putting your brother next to you at because of that six-inch separation.' And then when you start to see that guys, it's a trickle effect. I told them guys, 'You are in the storm, storm coming, the dam breaks when it's a crack here and here's a second crack.' Well now, alright this guy's leaving his hold of this play to now go try to help over here because he doesn’t know if that guy's going to, and now that's when the whole damn thing collapsed down, man."

The coaching staff was encouraged last week, when the defense was able to earn stops in critical moments against the Panthers.

"That's what we can't have right now. Just do your job one more time," said Sheppard. "Even if that's boring, even if that's backside of a play. When you think, 'I'm not at the point of attacking, oh, let me go.' And there's the ball rolling back on you. Just do your job one more time at a championship level. Everybody wants these big, huge results. But really guys, the big, huge results come in the process and in the little things, man.

"We’ve gotten the stops in critical moments. In multiple games when we needed to get the offense the ball, we went out and did it. But what about the other 40 minutes guys? Why wait until the end of the game? 'Oh, we got to step.' We’ve got to bow up getting off the bus and make sure we're doing our end as a one-third of this football team to make sure we're coming away with the results that we want on game day.”

For more comprehensive Detroit Lions coverage and NFL insider analysis, follow us on X, @detroitpodcast, head on over to our Facebook page and give it a like, follow us on TikTok, subscribe to the Detroit Lions On SI Lone Wolves YouTube Channel for daily videos, news, member-exclusive content.

Add us as a preferred source on Google