Report: Lions losing WR Josh Reynolds to the Denver Broncos

Report: Lions losing WR Josh Reynolds to the Denver Broncos

The Detroit Lions will have to find more wide receiver help, as they lost one of their biggest contributors to free agency this week. As first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, wideout Josh Reynolds is signing a two-year deal worth a maximum of $14 million total. At this point, the main structure of the deal is unknown.

This week at the NFL owners meetings, both coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes expressed interest in bringing Reynolds back for the 2024 season.

“We’re still in contact with J-Rey,” Campbell said Tuesday. “I don’t think it’s a secret what we think about him as far as type of player he is, the unselfishness, the dirty work, the versatility so look, I love J-Rey and that doesn’t mean something won’t get done.”

Holmes noted that the Lions hit on every Plan A in free agency… except for bringing back Reynolds.

“Josh Reynolds, he’s one that was part of the original plans,” Holmes said. “Still having dialogue, we’ll just kind of see where that goes. But that’s really the only one that’s still out there who was in the original plans.”

That said, the Lions are still in a somewhat comfortable spot at wide receiver. Amon-Ra St. Brown returns—and is due for an extension, Jameson Williams is expected to take on a bigger role, and the Lions are also confident that with an offseason to fully learn the offense, recently re-signed Donovan Peoples-Jones could make a bigger impact, too.

“He’ll have a better understanding of what we’re doing (when) we go into camp,” Campbell said. “And so I think what it does it just gives us somebody that we know can play the position. He’s a bigger-body guy, too, so he’s a little different than anybody we’ve got. And that’s really what he gives us.”

Beyond that, the Lions have ample depth with players like Kalif Raymond, Tom Kennedy, Maurice Alexander and Antoine Green. Still, they could probably stand to upgrade their top-end talent.

Reynolds’ time in Detroit ends after 2.5 season. Over that time, he caught 97 passes for 1,393 yards and 10 touchdowns.