Lions Waive TE Brandon Pettigrew From Non-Football Injury List

The Detroit Lions announced that they’ve waived TE Brandon Pettigrew from reserve/non-football injury list on Friday.

#Lions have waived TE Brandon Pettigrew from Reserve/Non-Football Injury.

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) December 9, 2016

Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press reported a few days ago that the Lions had cleaned out Pettigrew’s locker in recent days and were expected to move on from him at some point in the near future.

Lions HC Jim Caldwell declined to say why they elected to place Pettigrew on the non-football injury list on Tuesday, but seemed to imply that they were going to go in a different direction.

“We made a decision on him,” Caldwell said. “I think it’s been reported, and that’s about all we can say on the matter. It was best for us.”

Pettigrew, 31, is a former first-round pick of the Lions back in 2009. He was in the third year of his four-year, $16 million contract that included $8 million guaranteed and set to make a base salary of $3.65 million for the 2016 season when he and the Lions agreed to a slightly reworked contract.

According to Field Yates, Pettigrew was due a non-guaranteed base salary of $3.65 million for 2016. However, the two parties have agreed to add a $2.2 million salary split while on the PUP list and had $1.2 million of his contract fully guaranteed.

The Lions placed Pettigrew on the PUP list coming out of the preseason, as he was still working his way back from a torn ACL he suffered last year.

In 2015, Pettigrew totaled seven receptions for 67 yards receiving and a single touchdown over the course of eight games.