Raymond will bring more than just intangibles to Chicago. Over the past five seasons with the Lions, he caught 171 passes for 2,185 yards and eight touchdowns. The 5-9, 160-pounder also averaged 11.3 yards on 132 punt returns with three touchdowns, earning second-team All-Pro honors in 2022 and 2024. His 413 punt return yards were the most in the NFL in 2024 even though he only played in 12 games.

“When you’re talking about the on-the-field stuff just in terms of playmaking ability, that shows up all over the tape,” Randle El said. “It always has for him. So that’s a big addition: a guy with speed who understands football—seeing the coverage, knowing the coverage—and the veteran presence that he’ll bring to my room.”

Raymond entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2016 from Holy Cross but did not blossom until he joined the Lions in 2021. He spent his first few years in the league shuffling between the Broncos (2016), Jets (2017), Giants (2017), Titans (2018), Giants again (2018) and Titans again (2018-20).

“I’ve got cut a lot of times,” Raymond said. “But each time I tell myself I’m not going to get cut for the same thing twice. Thankfully by the grace of God I had more than one opportunity to learn from and eventually if you work hard enough, you’ll be able to round out your game. In the NFL … you have to have that work ethic, talent, but you also kind of need a little bit of luck. I ran into a very positive situation. [The Lions] gave me an opportunity to be able to show what I can do and I’m forever grateful for that. It gave me the opportunity to grow.”

The biggest leap that Raymond made was between his first two seasons in Detroit.

“We knew what we had the first year we got him,” Randle El said. “It was just about, ‘Is he going to work at it?’ You knew you had a hard worker, but at some point, some guys say, ‘That’s it, I have it my all, I can’t do it anymore.’

“But he keeps going to another level, and that’s what we saw in his improvement from his first year to his second year. He had some drops his first year with us and came back the second year and caught the ball even cleaner than he had before.

“I remember his first year, the physical nature in which I expect him to play showed up. It wasn’t showing up enough, and he was able to take that to another level. And when he took it to another level, all the guys around him were able to do the same. That leadership part—whether he’s talking in the room or whether he’s showing it on the field—goes a long way.”