Detroit Lions

Every NFL player the encyclopedia attributes to the Detroit Lionsfrom profile season records, grouped by position, first season to last. Coverage follows the encyclopedia’s per-era source depth (complete 1999+, legend-era via validated Wikipedia/NFL.com grids).

Every position room Detroit Lions has passed down, steadiest first. The Specialists room is their most stable — 5 holders across 40 years, a new one every 8 on average.

1. Specialists5 holders · 4 handoffs · 1986–2025 · one every 8y
   Jim Arnold1986–1993→Sam Martin2013–2019→Matt Prater2014–2020→Jack Fox2020–2025→Riley Patterson2021–2023
2. QB9 holders · 8 handoffs · 1981–2025 · one every 5y
   Eric Hipple1981–1989→Rodney Peete1989–1993→Erik Kramer1991–1993→Scott Mitchell1994–1998→Charlie Batch1998–2001→Joey Harrington2002–2005→Jon Kitna2006–2008→Matthew Stafford2009–2020→Jared Goff2021–2025
3. TE15 holders · 14 handoffs · 1982–2025 · one every 2.9y
   Rob Rubick1982–1988→David Lewis1984–1986→Rodney Holman1993–1995→David Sloan1995–2001→Pete Metzelaars1996–1997→Mikhael Ricks2002–2003→Casey Fitzsimmons2003–2009→Will Heller2009–2012→Brandon Pettigrew2009–2015→Tony Scheffler2010–2013→Eric Ebron2014–2017→Darren Fells2017–2021→T.J. Hockenson2019–2022→Brock Wright2021–2025→Sam LaPorta2023–2025
4. RB20 holders · 19 handoffs · 1980–2025 · one every 2.3y
   Billy Sims1980–1984→Garry James1986–1988→Barry Sanders1989–1998→Ron Rivers1995–1999→Tommy Vardell1997–1998→Cory Schlesinger1999–2006→Aveion Cason2001–2008→Shawn Bryson2003–2006→Kevin Jones2004–2007→Maurice Morris2009–2011→Jahvid Best2010–2011→Joique Bell2012–2016→Reggie Bush2013–2014→Theo Riddick2013–2018→Ameer Abdullah2015–2018→Kerryon Johnson2018–2020→D'Andre Swift2020–2022→Jamaal Williams2021–2022→David Montgomery2023–2025→Jahmyr Gibbs2023–2025
5. WR20 holders · 19 handoffs · 1984–2025 · one every 2.1y
   Pete Mandley1984–1988→Robert Clark1989–1991→Jeff Campbell1990–1993→Willie Green1991–1993→Brett Perriman1991–1996→Herman Moore1991–2001→Johnnie Morton1994–2001→Germane Crowell1998–2002→Az-Zahir Hakim2002–2006→Mike Furrey2006–2008→Shaun McDonald2007–2008→Calvin Johnson2007–2015→Nate Burleson2010–2013→Titus Young2011–2012→Golden Tate2014–2018→Kenny Golladay2017–2020→Josh Reynolds2021–2023→Amon-Ra St. Brown2021–2025→Kalif Raymond2021–2025→Jameson Williams2022–2025
6. LB21 holders · 20 handoffs · 1995–2025 · one every 1.5y
   Stephen Boyd1995–2001→Chris Claiborne1999–2002→Barrett Green2001–2003→Earl Holmes2003–2005→Boss Bailey2003–2007→Teddy Lehman2004–2007→Paris Lenon2006–2008→Ernie Sims2006–2009→Julian Peterson2009–2010→Deandre Levy2009–2016→Stephen Tulloch2011–2015→Tahir Whitehead2013–2017→Josh Bynes2014–2016→Jarrad Davis2017–2022→Jalen Reeves-Maybin2017–2024→Devon Kennard2018–2019→Christian Jones2018–2020→Trey Flowers2019–2021→Jamie Collins2020–2021→Charles Harris2021–2023→Alex Anzalone2021–2025

+2 more rooms with a shorter average hold.

Room tenures, not starting jobs — the corpus has no per-season depth chart, so holders can overlap (a successor often arrives before his predecessor leaves) and the measure is how often the room changed hands. A holder is a player who produced real value for this club during his years here, which is what separates holding the room from being on the roster. Detected from per-season VAL (1980–2025 here; league coverage is complete from 1999) — rooms the corpus cannot value are not shown.