Lions Trade for Safety Andre Cisco Before Deadline

The last time Detroit saw Andre Cisco, he was celebrating a sack against the Lions in Detroit on Sept. 27. Now he is on their side. The Lions are acquiring the safety from the New York Jets for a 2028 sixth-round pick, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Monday, one day before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET trade deadline.

The price is tiny and the need is real. Detroit is 6-2 and has won four straight, but its pass defense has allowed the most passing yards in the league, and the safety room has been hit hard. Avonte Maddox is out for the season, Thomas Harper is still out with a significant ankle injury, and Kerby Joseph is working back from a chronic knee problem.

A Familiar Face for Glenn’s Old Defense

Cisco knows the system. The Jets are coached by Aaron Glenn, Detroit’s former defensive coordinator, and Cisco has spent the last two seasons around him in New York. He has mostly played free safety in his career but can move around the secondary, and he had seven interceptions across the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

His role with the Jets had shrunk. Dane Belton’s arrival and Minkah Fitzpatrick’s return from injury pushed him down the depth chart, and he has played 191 defensive snaps this season, just 23 of them across the last five games. He has started four of nine games with 23 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble, and he has been a core special teamer.

Low Cost, Short Term

This is a rental with upside. Cisco is 26 and his contract expires after the season, so Detroit gets a veteran with 59 career starts for the stretch run without touching its top picks. New York, sitting at 2-7, gets something for a player who had fallen out of the rotation.

The Lions still have Jack Campbell to worry about after he missed the win in Miami with a neck injury, the first game he had ever missed. But a defense that held the Dolphins without a touchdown on Sunday now has another veteran in the back end. Detroit plays New England in Munich on Nov. 15.

Smacktok pick lean: Hold off on Andre Cisco tackles in Munich until Detroit shows how it will use him, since he has played only 23 defensive snaps in the last five games. If Kerby Joseph is ruled out and Cisco starts, lean higher on his total tackles, because the Lions’ secondary has been on the field a lot against the pass.