Sione Vaki is likely never to play the position he was really good at in Utah for the Lions, what the big plan for him is

Going into the 2024 NFL Draft, there was not a player we were more sure that the Lions were going to draft than Sione Vaki. It just made all the sense in the world. A guy who could play three ways is right up the alley of a team that loves versatilty in it's players. 

When he got picked, Vaki was one of the better safeties in the draft. He was an All-American at the position and was a first-team All-Pac-12 there, too. He'll probably never play that position for the Lions, though. 

It's for multiple reasons really. The first is that the Lions may have never looked at Vaki as a safety. Here's what Lions GM Brad Holmes said about Vaki right after drafting him last year:

“We have some options there, but we know he can play safety. We know he can do that, but the vision is we’re so intrigued by the running back stuff, especially because he hadn’t been majoring in it, so it’s like, how far can this thing go if he’s actually majoring in this thing in one room? So that’s going to be the vision.”

That's the vision they went after in 2024. Vaki was strictly a running back in his rookie year, and the Lions want him to learn that position because the likelihood is that they see him as the guy who takes over for David Montgomery when that time comes. 

That time might not be too far away either. The way the Lions worked out Montgomery's contract certainly gives them multiple different outs starting with after the 2025 season. 

We didn't get to see Vaki get a ton of regular-season reps at running back last year, and we know now that the Lions really wanted him to learn the position more, and that's why. This summer, we should expect to see him a lot more, and he should probably get some carries during the regular season, too. 

In terms of safety, Detroit just doesn't need him there. They have two of the best safeties in the league, a strong depth guy in Avonte Maddox, and a good battle brewing between Dan Jackson, Loren Strickland, and Morice Norris. Let's see where that goes.