Detroit Lions Announce Nine Signed to Reserve/Futures Contracts

Nine players were signed to futures contracts on Monday afternoon.

The Detroit Lions announced on Monday afternoon that nine players had been signed to futures contracts with the team. 

An NFL reserve/futures contract is given out by teams to players who did not finish the regular season on an active roster, whether they are on a practice squad or are a free agent. 

These agreements go into effect on the first day of the new league year.

Also, the team announced that outside linebacker Austin Bryant was activated off of the reserve/COVID-19 list.  

Reserve/futures signings

• DE Eric Banks 
• LB Tavante Beckett 
• DE Bruce Hector 
• WR Javon McKinley 
• QB Steven Montez 
• CB Parnell Motley 
• OT Dan Skipper 
• CB Saivion Smith 
• TE Shane Zylstra

Head coach Dan Campbell shares thoughts on second half of the 2021 NFL season

For Detroit, there is some solace heading into the offseason, since the team performed better in the second half of the 2021 season and played more consistently. 

“I felt like it was exactly what it was. I felt like once we came out of the bye week, we played a lot better football," Campbell said on Monday. "I thought we complemented each other much better offensively, defensively. And, to me, you could really feel and see progress, and I really felt like over the last probably five, six weeks that I really felt, ‘OK, now we can get a true evaluation of our players, all of them and where we’re at offensively, defensively, special teams.’ I didn’t always feel that way, particularly offensively until a certain point, and that was big. 

"That’s big for us. And, there again, I just go back, you see improvement and we played some good football down the stretch. Now, some of it wasn’t, and I’m not going to get into why it was or why it wasn’t. But, I know this, we were better. We were certainly better in the back half of the season than in the beginning.”

#Lions roster moves:

Signed the following to a Reserve/Future Contract:

DE Eric Banks
LB Tavante Beckett
DE Bruce Hector
WR Javon McKinley
QB Steven Montez
CB Parnell Motley
OT Dan Skipper
CB Saivion Smith
TE Shane Zylstra

Activated OLB Austin Bryant from Reserve/COVID-19

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 10, 2022