ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- The switch came in the spring. Alex Carter looked at the Detroit Lions' roster. The Lions' coaching staff looked at Carter. And both agreed that the best possible chance he had to make Detroit’s team this season was not at cornerback, where he had been playing, but at safety.
This necessitated making a shift in the third year of his career, a year where he was already no lock to make the roster after the former third-round pick was cut last year and spent most of 2016 on the practice squad.