Lions Part Ways With Promising RB After Injury Setback

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Lions Part Ways With Promising RB After Injury Setback

Nathan Dougherty · HEAVY

Tue, Aug 25, 2026 ·

3 min read

Lions Part Ways With Kye Robichaux

The Lions on Monday waived running back Kye Robichaux, who had suffered a foot injury after the team's first preseason game. Head coach Dan Campbell at the time announced that Robichaux had broken a bone.

âGod bless him, dude, heâs got a footâ¦looks like he may have broken a bone in that foot,âÂ Campbell said.

The Lions announced a series of other moves in their backfield on Monday, placing veteran Raheem Blackshear on injured reserve and signing running back Roydell Williams.

The Lions will face some other difficult decisions in the backfield, including the fate of running back and special teams regular Sione Vaki. He missed the team's second preseason game after suffering an injury, head coach Dan Campbell said.

âHe woke up yesterday, and he just had kind of a knot in his back here,â Campbell said. âItâs not major, but itâs enough to where, itâs one of those bad spasms to where we were hoping we could get it out of there. Give him some stuff to hopefully loosen it out. We ran out of time with it.â

Vaki also missed time with a broken nose and poked eye after a defender's hand got under his facemask during a practice. Campbell noted the running back's injury struggles, saying the team hoped to see him in the second preseason game.

âNow the good news, we would have loved to have seen him. I told him that. He wanted to play,â Campbell said. âBut also, he got some really good work, coming off of a broke nose, a punched out eye. Iâm like, âI think weâre good Vaki for a little bit here.â Weâll get this to calm down. Heâll be ready to practice this week, I would anticipate. I think weâll be okay there.â

Kye Robichaux Also Suffered Injury With Lions in 2025

This is now the second year that the Lions have parted ways with Robichaux after an injury. The teamÂ announced last August that they waived then-rookie Robichaux with an injury designation. The former Boston College running back was not expected to make the final roster at the time, withÂ SI.comâs Vito Chirco predicting he would fall just behind fellow rookie Anthony Tyus III.

âAs for Robichaux, he spent his first two seasons at Western Kentucky followed by his final two at Boston College. In his final campaign with the Eagles , he recorded 744 yards and 10 touchdowns on 175 carries,â Chirco wrote. âAt this present juncture, I believe that Tyus is ahead of Robichaux on the teamâs RB depth chart.â

Robichaux generated some buzz after his four-year collegiate career, where he rushed for 2,342 yards and 24 touchdowns, adding 44 receptions for 368 yards and two receiving touchdowns.

This article was originally published on HEAVY