Allen Park — A year after leaving Detroit, the Lions are bringing back veteran linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin. The two sides agreed to contract terms Wednesday evening, according to the player’s agent.
A fourth-round draft pick out of the University of Tennessee in 2017, Reeves-Maybin spent his first five seasons with the Lions, where he developed into one of the league’s top special teams performers, leading the team in tackles with those units in 2021, and finishing fifth in the league in special teams stops two years earlier.
Reeves-Maybin also played his biggest defensive role his final season with the Lions, logging more than 600 defensive snaps as part of a timeshare with then-rookie Derrick Barnes after the team released veteran Jamie Collins in the early stages of the 2021 season.
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That performance netted Reeves-Maybin a two-year, $7.5 million contract from the Texans last season, where he wasn’t able to maintain the same type of role on defense, but finished with a career-high 390 special teams snaps while appearing in all 17 games. The team released him ahead of the second and final season of that contract in a cap-savings move earlier this month.
In Detroit, whether he’s able to work his way back into the defensive rotation or not, Reeves-Maybin should help replace the special teams contributions of Chris Board, who signed with the New England Patriots last week.
Reeves-Maybin will also be reuniting with college teammates Cam Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley, who signed both signed with the Lions this offseason as free agents.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers