The Detroit Lions have released nine players since Monday morning. The releases were made in an effort to shrink the roster down to 80 players before the 4 p.m. deadline on Tuesday.
There was some confusion over why only nine players were released considering the Lions started the week with 90 on their roster. As it turns out, they only needed to release nine because running back Mikel Leshoure will no longer count against the roster as of 4 p.m. He was placed on injured reserve weeks ago, but he still counted against the roster since the Lions didn't want to expose him to waivers.
With Leshoure officially being off the roster and on injured reserve at 4 p.m., the Lions will have only 80 players left on the team. These players will head to Buffalo for the final game of the preseason on Thursday, and then Friday and Saturday will be spent making cuts to get down to 53 players.