Jackson Meeks Might Be the Most Interesting Name on Detroit’s Roster Right Now
The Detroit Lions spent most of 2025 dealing with tight end injuries. Sam LaPorta went down. Brock Wright missed time. The staff had to dig into the practice squad and pull up Jackson Meeks, an undrafted rookie wide receiver who had never played tight end in his life. They asked a 6-foot-2, 210-pound receiver to line up attached to the formation and do tight end things. It felt like a desperation move. It probably was.
But here’s the part that makes you lean in. They kept working him there. Through the rest of the season. Through minicamp. And now Meeks is 235 pounds.
That’s a 25-pound jump. For context, Sam LaPorta is listed at 245. Meeks is 10 pounds lighter than the starting tight end and he’s put himself in position to become a legitimate tight end slash wide receiver hybrid. That’s not a gimmick. That’s a chess piece.
Why This Actually Matters
Think about how this plays out on the field. The Lions line up with LaPorta, Wright, and Meeks. The defense sees 13 personnel, three tight ends. They answer with base personnel or a bigger nickel package because they expect duo, power, counter, split zone, all the run plays Drew Petzing loves. Then Meeks motions outside.
Suddenly the 13 personnel look shifts into something resembling 11 personnel without Detroit making a single substitution. That ambiguity is gold. The defense has to declare their intentions while Detroit keeps their options open. You have a guy they can’t pin down. He might be inside. He might be outside. He might block. He might run a route. That’s the whole selling point.
This is exactly the kind of versatility Drew Petzing has talked about valuing because it forces defenses to declare their intentions while preventing them from matching personnel.
Can He Actually Block Though
This whole experiment hinges on one thing. Can Meeks do the dirty work?
Nobody questions whether he can catch the football or run routes. The question is whether he can line up attached to the formation, kick out an edge defender, seal a linebacker, or hold his block long enough for Jahmyr Gibbs to get around the corner. If he can’t, none of this matters. He’s just a wide receiver standing in a tight end’s spot.
The early returns are encouraging. During his regular season snaps in 2025, Meeks posted a 60.1 run blocking grade per Pro Football Focus. Not horrible. In the preseason the numbers got better. He posted an 85.2 run block grade in the Hall of Fame game and a 91.3 run blocking grade on 36 snaps against Atlanta. Things dipped against Miami (54.2) and Houston (53.7), but his overall preseason run block grade sat at 88.5. Go back to his final year at Syracuse and he graded out at 75.5 as a run blocker there too.
He was a decent blocker in college. That’s exactly the kind of profile the Lions love to develop.
Where He Fits on This Roster
The Lions are likely to carry four tight ends and four receivers, with Meeks landing somewhere in the middle of that. He would be that fourth tight end but also function as a fifth receiver, giving Detroit the flexibility to push him inside or outside depending on the matchup.
Tyler Conklin is expected to fill the receiving tight end role behind LaPorta, and he should make the roster. But Meeks has a real chance to challenge him because of the versatility he brings. The counterargument is that Conklin is a proven blocker at the NFL level, and that matters. Then you look at Brock Wright, who hasn’t been a particularly good blocker or a productive receiving tight end, and you start to wonder where he fits in all of this.
The closest comparison people reach for with this kind of player is Taysom Hill, who has played quarterback, receiver, and tight end throughout his career. Most guys who attempt this hybrid role end up stuck in the middle. They’re too small to be true tight ends and not explosive enough to be full-time receivers. Coaches eventually stop forcing it. But the Lions aren’t treating this like a gimmick. They’ve worked Meeks at tight end consistently since last season, and the fact that he added 25 pounds shows genuine commitment to the experiment.
What to Watch in Training Camp
Meeks still has to make the 53-man roster. Nothing is guaranteed. But the versatility is the selling point, and in Petzing’s system, which thrives on 12 and 13 personnel groupings, there’s a clear path for a player who can blur the line between tight end and receiver.
We’re less than two weeks away from seeing what Meeks looks like in this role during training camp. We’ll see if the blocking holds up. We’ll see if the coaching staff trusts him enough to keep him on the field in real situations.
This is the kind of move the Lions make. Find a guy nobody else wanted, give him a role that forces defenses to think, and see if he can handle it. So far Meeks has done everything they’ve asked. Let’s see if he can answer the bell.
