With some questions looming in the secondary, the Detroit Lions were in need of some insurance at safety and corner, and they took one big step toward finding some support by signing versatile defensive back Christian Izien. With experience at all five positions in the secondary, Izien gives the Lions a young, hungry player who can fill in at a variety of spots on a moment’s notice.
Detroit, MI
What Christian Izien brings to the Detroit Lions roster
Izien’s background is filled with stories of people doubting him and him overcoming. Unsurprisingly, this pattern has left a sizable chip on his shoulder, and one he’s leaned on when it’s time to dig deep and rise up.
“I’ve been told ‘no’ a lot of times, and I’ve worked through it. So, having the ability to believe in myself, that’s the most important attribute for me,” Izien said at his introductory press conference in Detroit.
As an undersized corner/wide receiver, Izien was one of Rutgers’ final scholarship offers from their 2018 class, but he quickly climbed the depth chart, earning a starting role in his second season on campus. Izien would start the next four seasons for Rutgers, spending the first three seasons splitting between both safety roles, and then shifting inside to nickel as a redshirt senior.
Despite his success at Rutgers, Izien was initially overlooked for the premier All-Star games; however, he parlayed a trip to the Hula Bowl into an invitation to the East-West Shrine Game. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to earn an invite to the NFL Combine, and Izien would not be drafted.
Izien would sign with the Buccaneers as an undrafted rookie, and not only did he make their roster, but he once again outkicked expectations, earning a starting role, primarily operating as their nickelback in 2023. In 2024, the Bucs drafted nickelback Tykee Smith in the third round and shifted Izien into a “super-sub” sixth defensive back role, but he still ended up starting 10 games and playing 63% of defensive snaps (at free safety, strong safety, and nickelback) due to injuries.
In 2025, the Bucs added corner Benjamin Morrison in the second round and nickelback Jacob Parrish in the third, flooding the secondary with even more talent, and Izien saw his role reduced, starting just one game and playing just 16% of defensive snaps.
“Last year, a lot of things didn’t go the way I thought they would, or the way I wanted them to,” Izien continued at his presser. “But I kinda have to put that in the past and use it as fuel and motivation for this year. I do see myself as a starter in this league.”
It’s worth noting that Izien also played in five phases of the Bucs special teams all three seasons, further increasing his overall team value.
What the experts are saying
Our friends at Pewter Report wrote Izien’s value, hoping the Bucs would re-sign him. Here’s an excerpt from that article:
“If Izien were to leave, the need to replace him would be more significant than it appears on paper. It would not just be about finding another defensive back; it would be about finding one who can do several jobs competently and understands the complexity of Bowles’ system. Young players can develop into that, but development takes time, and mistakes in the secondary are costly (see Morrison during his rookie year). Veterans who offer that same flexibility do not come at bargain prices.”
Izien’s positional versatility allows him to find his way onto the field in very similar ways that Avonte Maddox did in Detroit last season.
At a minimum, Izien seems poised to step into a DB6/“super sub” type of role in Detroit, but he’ll also likely get a few chances to earn a starting role at nickelback or safety, while the Lions mitigate their injuries. At nickel, Izien will compete with newly signed Roger McCreary, while safety could see a three-way competition between Izien, Thomas Harper, and Dan Jackson, for one or two safety spots, depending on the health of Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph.
At his press conference, Izien disclosed that the Lions haven’t specified the role they want him to play in 2026, but he noted that his versatility will help him “find a role” on this team. He would go on to say he didn’t have a preference for where he played, just that he wanted to be on the field and was comfortable moving around as needed.
While the Lions won’t commit to a role for Izien this early in the offseason, the clearest opportunity for him to find the field early in the season is in the Branch role. Like the Lions Pro Bowl safety, Izien is a comfortable working out of two deep safety sets, but is also very strong when working in the box.
“Anytime I am close to the football or close to the line of scrimmage, I can have an impact,” Izien said on Friday. “Whether that’s blitzing, covering, playing zone, playing man, being close to the football is always a plus for somebody like me. I’m not the biggest guy on the field, I know that, so I have to find ways to be effective by using my speed, my athleticism to be able to affect the game.”
You can never have too many position-versatile players like Izien, and with the questions the Lions have in their secondary, adding another player like Avonte Maddox should remain an option. The unfortunate part of that strategy is that free agency is getting thin with young, versatile players, which is why the Lions don’t re-sign Maddox; they may look to the NFL Draft for more depth.
We discussed several nickelback options in the draft in our McCreary roster impact article, but if the Lions are looking for a position versatile player on Day 3 of the draft, they’ll be hoping for some players to slide or to find a diamond in the rough.
Here are a few options we’ll be keeping our eyes on:
- Treydan Stukes (Arizona) may be the most position-versatile defensive back in the draft, though he seems unlikely to escape the top 100.
- VJ Payne (Kansas State) has the versatility to play both safety spots and in the slot, and could likely be selected early on Day 3.
- TJ Hall (Iowa) is likely headed for a nickelback role in the NFL, but he hits like a safety and could probably convert if needed.
Energy Storage Safety Products International (ESSPI), based in Newlab Detroit at Michigan Central, has launched Med Hawk, a new division of the company focused on bringing its ground-based transportation monitoring system to the skies.
With this launch, ESSPI will provide drone operators with insight and analytics when aircraft are transporting medical supplies beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).
“The drone industry has built the foundation for incredible unmanned aircraft, but now ESSPI is working to demonstrate how we can make those same drones work for us,” says Ron Butler, CEO of ESSPI. “Using Med Hawk’s real-time data and monitoring systems, we are able to help ensure that medical supplies are delivered quickly and safely, ultimately helping to save lives.”
Med Hawk has partnered with Brighton autonomous drone logistics company Blueflite to demonstrate its drone battery monitoring and data logging capabilities and is utilizing the Michigan Central AAIR to replicate deliveries in real-world deployment scenarios.
“Blueflite is excited to work with ESSPI in flight testing their innovative and unique cold storage solution for medical logistics,” says Andrew Zeimen, program manager at Blueflite. “We are looking forward to flying with a Michigan designed and manufactured product on our mission to continue making drone delivery accessible to those that need it, where and when they need it most.”
ESSPI technology is built on the understanding that batteries often exhibit measurable environmental changes before catastrophic failure, the company says. Designed through three years of collaborative development with the U.S Department of Transportation, ESSPI’s DNOC framework — Detection, Notification, Operation, and Communication — allows Med Hawk to provide real-time visibility, data logging, and alerts so drone operators can take action before issues escalate.
Advanced aerial mobility is expanding access to medical deliveries, improving emergency response capabilities, and driving efficiencies across logistics and supply chains. Michigan Central and the Michigan Department of Transportation created AAIR to help scale these technologies, providing 28 square miles of dense, urban environment for testing and scaling new drone technologies into market-ready solutions.
“The diversification of ESSPI’s market offering showcases the transition we’re seeing many companies make, identification and commercialization of products which will make aerial mobility a viable platform to scale their business, while providing solutions for communities that better serve their needs,” says Matt Whitaker, director of the mobility innovation platform at Michigan Central. “What we are seeing with ESSPI and Blueflite is exactly what the Michigan Central ecosystem was built for. To create the foundation for talent and inspiring collaboration between member companies, leading to the next generation of advanced mobility innovation being born in Detroit.”
The collaboration is said to reflect broader momentum across Michigan Central’s aerial mobility ecosystem, which has supported more than 1,200 drone flights and multiple BVLOS deployments focused on logistics, infrastructure inspection, public safety, and delivery applications.
For more information about ESSPI, visit esspi.com/.
For more information about blueflite, visit blueflite.com/.
For more information about Michigan Central AAIR, visit here.
Detroit, MI
Power outage forces flaring at Marathon’s Detroit refinery; portion of Schaefer Road closed
Southwest Detroit – A power outage at Marathon’s Detroit refinery has led to operating conditions that made flaring necessary, the company said Sunday.
Flares are safety devices that allow for the safe combustion of excess gases under certain operating conditions, according to Marathon.
Refinery personnel are conducting off-site air monitoring, the company said.
As a precaution, a section of Schaefer Road from I-75 to Dix Road is closed. Local law enforcement is managing the closure.
Marathon said the company’s top priorities are the safety of employees, responders and the community, as well as limiting any environmental impact.
Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield said her administration is monitoring the situation closely.
“EGLE (the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy) and refinery personnel are conducting air quality monitoring both on-site and in the surrounding neighborhoods. At this time, monitoring has not detected gas readings of concern,” the statement said.
Local 4 reached out to EGLE and a spokesperson said the agency is sending all media inquiries to the city of Detroit.
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State Sen. Mallory McMorrow has dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, ceding the field to former Wayne County and Detroit health director Abdul El-Sayed and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens with just over four weeks to go until the Aug. 4 primary.
McMorrow told the Free Press on Sunday, July 5, she was suspending her campaign. She said she had hoped that voters would support a candidate who combined El-Sayed’ progressivism and Stevens’ policy background but that path has been largely closed off by considerable outside spending — tens of millions of it benefitting Stevens — in the race.
She did not endorse one of the other candidates in the race, at least not in the immediate aftermath of her decision.
In a three-minute video she posted at 1:40 p.m. Sunday on social media platform X, McMorrow confirmed her decision to suspend her campaign, saying she was doing so with a “deep sense of gratitude” to her supporters and campaign workers; her husband, Ray Wert; and their 5-year-old daughter, Noa, who McMorrow said reminded her recently, “‘It’s not about if you win, it’s about trying hard and having fun.’ She’s right.”
“People are crying out for change and we need to listen,” McMorrow said. “Whoever wins this primary on Aug. 4th will have my full support… Let’s elect Democrats up and down the ticket and show the rest of the country what it means to fight like Michigan.”
McMorrow, of Royal Oak, leaves the race after being the first big-name Democrat to run to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Gary Peters and having raised more than $8.6 million by the end of the last campaign finance reporting period at the end of March. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Mike Rogers, a former U.S. representative, of White Lake, who lost a U.S. Senate race in Michigan two years ago to Democrat Elissa Slotkin bu 19,006 votes, or about three-tenths of 1 percentage point.
Her departure, however, comes after absentee ballots have already been mailed out to some voters and too late to remove her name from the primary ballot. Voters who have already submitted their absentee ballots can contact their local clerks, ask to spoil their ballots and request a new one until 5 p.m. Friday, July 24.
Throughout her campaign, McMorrow — who toppled a Republican state senator in 2018 and became an internet sensation after speech of hers bashing a Republican colleague who accused her and other Democrats of grooming and sexualizing children went viral — displayed a ready ebullience, meeting with voters at local breweries. But she never got the opportunity to show the fire she had in that speech on the Senate floor in 2022 and was likely hurt by revelations that she had deleted old posts on Twitter/X in which she criticized her adopted state, though others said the reaction to that was blown out of proportion.
While she challenged for or was in the lead in some polls earlier in the year, more recent surveys have showed her dropping back considerably as El-Sayed, running as the progressive standard-bearer, and Stevens, a more moderate candidate with support from the Democratic establishment and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, moved to the front in recent polling averages.
In late June, the Wall Street Journal cited sources saying that Peters, a close ally of Schumer’s but who had not publicly endorsed a Democratic candidate in the race to replace him, had told associates that McMorrow needed to consider leaving the race so Democrats could coalesce around Stevens to face El-Sayed, who has been criticized in the past for campaigning with an internet influencer, Hasan Piker, who critics say has made antisemitic remarks.
Then there was the outside spending, which has piled up enormously in recent weeks. Punchbowl News, a respected journalism site in Washington, wrote July 3 that a $30 million “avalanche” in ads benefitting Stevens had been booked by outside groups before McMorrow had begun to spend heavily on broadcast TV. At least one of those ads, as the Free Press reported Friday, stretched its facts in making attacks on El-Sayed.
While Stevens has called for election reform in Congress she has characterized the outside help she has received as in line with legal standards and not questioned its propriety.
But it was far from clear immediately whether McMorrow’s departure would be enough to bump El-Sayed, of Ann Arbor, out of the lead. Recent polling averages have shown McMorrow’s support in single digits and Stevens may need all of that to catch El-Sayed if those are correct.
Stevens’ level of support from staunchly pro-Israel groups, including the American-Israel Public Affairs Group (AIPAC), which also supports Republican candidates who have voted to maintain U.S. support for Israel, has also been controversial. Many Democrats have voiced skepticism of whether the U.S. should continue to give Israel the support it has given its prosecution of its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Without question, however, McMorrow’s leaving the race makes the choice a binary one for Democrats still on the fence a month before the election — which may help Stevens most since it’s presumed that El-Sayed’s supporters are already largely on board with a campaign that has been surging for months now. But predictions about El-Sayed’s levels of support topping out have been wrong before in this campaign.
El-Sayed released a statement praising McMorrow’s campaign and saying she “showed what it looks like to fight back against a politics that rigs the system against too many of us.” He then welcomed McMorrow’s supporters “to our movement to stand up against money in politics, to put money back in pockets and pass Medicare for All. We cannot allow the establishment to decide our nominee for us.”
“The same party insiders she had the courage to challenge have been bullying anyone who opposes their chosen candidate,” El-Sayed said. “After spending $30 million to drown Senator McMorrow and me out, they’re now spending even more to attack me. It’s everything we are standing up against.”
Stevens also spoke warmly about McMorrow’s effort in the campaign, though she made less of a direct pitch to McMorrow’s supporters.
“Anyone who raises their hand to serve the people of Michigan and puts forward thoughtful ideas for how they would lead earns my respect,” said Stevens, of Birmingham. “Mallory McMorrow has been an important voice, both in this race and in the state Senate, for policies that benefit Michigan’s children and families, and I look forward to working with her in the future to build a stronger Michigan for everyone.”
“As we enter the final month of the primary election, I’m excited to continue to make my case to Michiganders why I’m the strongest Democrat to defeat Mike Rogers this November, lower costs, protect manufacturing jobs, and stand up to Trump’s abuses of power,” she said.
Greg Manz, a spokesman for the state Republican Party, characterized McMorrow’s leaving the campaign as going from “a three-car pileup to a head-on collision.”
“Whoever survives the messy Democrat primary will be held accountable at the ballot box this November for turning their backs on Michigan’s working families — Mike Rogers will beat whoever emerges from their chaotic primary,” he said.
Hunter Lovell, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said “McMorrow’s exit is the latest example of the socialist takeover. While Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens tear each other apart, President Trump and Mike Rogers are delivering tax cuts and safer communities.”
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on X @tsspangler.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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