The Detroit Lions signed a veteran offensive lineman to compete for a backup tackle job Monday, on the same day they lost another undrafted free agent to early retirement.
Kendall Lamm, who started one game last season for the Tennessee Titans, signed a one-year contract with the Lions. He will compete with Matt Nelson, Dan Skipper and Darrin Paulo for a swing tackle role behind starters Taylor Decker and Penei Sewell.
Lamm takes the roster spot of former Ferris State offensive lineman Zein Obeid, who was placed on the reserve/retired list Monday.
Obeid is the fourth Lions player to retire prematurely in the past two months, and the third member of the Lions’ 12-person undrafted free agent class.
UDFA cornerback Jermaine Waller of Virginia Tech retired in early June, third-year defensive lineman John Penisini announced his retirement a week later, and rookie receiver Corey Sutton retired earlier in training camp.
Waller was 21, Penisini 25, Sutton 24 and Obeid 23.
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“I know why you’re asking (if this is a trend), ’cause it is the obvious but I just feel like it’s — everybody’s different and, look, it’s not for everybody,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said Monday. “It’s not. Not everything’s easy about it and it’s not just about football. So look, I wish him the best of luck and he’s a great kid, he’s a grinder, he worked. And so, man, on with the next endeavor.”
Campbell said Lions general manager Brad Holmes is re-evaluating his processes of assessing rookies because of the rash of retirements, though he said “three of the four, man, they were — from the time they got here you’d have never guessed something like this” would happen.
“The minute we had the first one back in the spring, Brad was already looking at those things,” Campbell said. “So that’s something that Brad’s always real critical about for himself, no different than we are as coaches as it pertains to the football side. Yeah, we’re going to look at everything, believe me. He’s looking at things I wouldn’t even think about looking at to dig as deep as we can dig and where do we get to where maybe we don’t have this issue or limit it.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.