For the first four years of linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin’s career, he was almost purely a special teams player. Drafted by former general manager Bob Quinn in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft, Reeves-Maybin immediately found himself as a key member of the Detroit Lions special teams unit, and the Jim Caldwell head coached team also found him 239 snaps worth of playing time on defense. It looked like his career was about to take off.
But when the team made a head coaching change to Matt Patricia the following year, he wanted his linebackers big and bulky—the opposite of the skill set Reeves-Maybin brought to the table.