{"id":644863,"date":"2026-01-01T05:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/644863\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T05:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:50:15","slug":"detroit-lions-wanted-to-keep-kingsley-eguakun-heres-why-they-couldnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/644863\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Lions wanted to keep Kingsley Eguakun: Here\u2019s why they couldn\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It was a bit of a surprising development, because Eguakun had served as the team\u2019s starting center over the past two weeks in relief of Graham Glasgow. After his game against the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2014his first career start\u2014Lions coach Dan Campbell came away quite impressed with his performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI thought it was really encouraging, I really did. For his first game to go out there, I thought he competed, I thought he fought, I thought he played fast. It was very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Eguakun took a step back in the following game against the Vikings, where there were two failed snap exchanges and some struggles in the blocking. Still, it was surprising to see Eguakun gone, because oftentimes, to prevent a player from getting poached, teams will sign that player to their own 53-man roster. That was the expectation with Eguakun this week, anyway, considering he was out of gameday elevations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It turns out the Lions wanted to do exactly that. Campbell noted in his Wednesday press conference that they were still encouraged by Eguakun\u2019s growth, and when asked if he wanted them on their 53-man roster, the answer was yes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The problem for Detroit is that it isn\u2019t just up to them. When a player is attempting to get poached from the practice squad, they have the ultimate say in where they go, and according to Campbell, Eguakun liked the opportunity in Cleveland better.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cHe liked the opportunity. So he felt like that was the right thing for him, and I wish him well,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cI love Kingsley, man. He\u2019s a good dude, works his tail off, has here for a couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Quite simply, the Browns offered something the Lions couldn\u2019t: a starting job. And Campbell wasn\u2019t prepared to lie to Eguakun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWe\u2019re not going to lie to anybody. I can\u2019t guarantee a starting spot. We\u2019re not going to do that. I can\u2019t guarantee that. They guaranteed that, so it\u2019s all good. It\u2019s good for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As for this week, it certainly sounds like the Lions are prepared to go back to Glasgow, who had been dealing with a knee injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cGraham is feeling a lot better,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a bit of a surprising development, because Eguakun had served as the team\u2019s starting center over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[153,1889,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-644863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-detroit-lions-news","9":"tag-detroit-lions-quotes","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115818282497153203","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}