Lions Turn to DeAndre Carter to Replace Tom Kennedy as Return Man

The Lions needed an answer in the return game, and they've now settled on one. DeAndre Carter moved from the practice squad to the active roster on Thursday, and special teams coordinator Dave Fipp says he'll handle punts and kickoffs. It's a fast fix for a problem that opened up after the bye-week injuries, and my read is that Detroit made the choice it had been signaling for a week.

Why Kennedy's absence matters

The Lions came out of their best game of the season, a blowout win in Arizona, and entered the bye week with some positive momentum. That momentum took a hit when they lost linebacker Devin White and return specialist Tom Kennedy. Both are expected to miss most, if not all, of the rest of the season.

Kennedy's role didn't show up in the passing game, which is partly why his loss is easy to underrate. He was the primary return man, though, and he had earned the coaching staff's trust on both punts and kickoffs. Teams don't hand those jobs to just anyone. A returner who has proven he can secure the ball, make the right decision on a live kick and pick up field position is worth more than his name on a box score suggests.

A stopgap that became a plan

After Kennedy went down, Amon-Ra St. Brown filled in on some return duties. That couldn't last. St. Brown is the offense's centerpiece, and no coaching staff wants its top receiver absorbing hits on kick returns when the game can be decided by a single misstep. The question was whether Detroit would look inside its building or outside it for a permanent answer.

The first hint came last week, when the Lions signed veteran wide receiver DeAndre Carter to the practice squad. Carter has a lot of return experience across his eight-year career, and that background made the practice squad move look like more than a depth signing. Practice squad elevations usually tell you what a staff is thinking before the official roster move arrives, and that's what happened here.

What Carter brings

Carter has bounced around the league his entire career, so the pressure to produce right away isn't new to him. The Lions will be the eighth team he has played for, and his stops include a 2024 season with the Chicago Bears. He understands the routine of learning a new system on short notice, which matters when the job starts the next time the ball is kicked.

His most recent season is the one Detroit fans will remember most clearly. Carter spent last year with the Browns, and his campaign ended early after a knee injury suffered against the Lions in Week 4. Before that, he had returned 11 kicks for 274 yards and six punts for 56 yards for Cleveland. Those are the numbers of a player who has done this job at a real level, not just filled a depth chart spot.

Fipp said Carter will return punts and kicks, and RB Jacob Saylors is also part of the return mix, per ESPN's Eric Woodyard. Splitting the work between a veteran wideout and a running back gives the coaches options depending on the situation, the opponent and how the kicks are coming off the foot.

The rest of the roster picture

Carter's promotion wasn't the only roster move on Thursday. Detroit also signed former Patriots safety Myles Bryant to the practice squad spot that opened up. The Lions still have two open spots on the 53-man roster, and it's not yet clear whether they'll fill them or how. Those final spots could tell us more about where the staff sees depth gaps, especially on special teams, where injuries tend to pile up in the back half of a season.

Here's the thing: a return unit usually looks settled only once it has been tested in live games. Carter has the experience, and the coaches clearly trust what they've seen in practice. The next few weeks will show whether he can give Detroit the same field position and reliability that Kennedy did before the injury. If he does, this move will look like a simple decision. If the returns start to wobble, the staff will be back at the drawing board quickly.