The Detroit Lions have signed former Seattle Seahawks cornerback DeShawn Shead to a one-year contract for the upcoming season, per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.

Shead has become a bit of an afterthought to those who follow the National Football League closely. Only playing two games last season because of the ACL he tore the year before, he did appear in 15 games for Seattle in 2016, only to lose his spot in the Legion of Boom due to an injury suffered in the playoffs. In those 15 appearances for Seattle in 2016, Shead started in all of them.

It's been an interesting journey for the corner. Coming out of Portland State, he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Seahawks, then barely played for the franchise his first few seasons in the league. After that, however, he began to find a nice niche in the defensive backfield.

What is interesting about this signing from the Detroit perspective is how the Lions appear to be adding players who should all be competing for the same spots through practices. In turn, at least in theory, it does add some depth.

Darius Slay, Nevin Lawson, Teez Tabor, Quandre Diggs and Jamal Agnew are all, at least at the time of this writing, already defensive backs inked to deals for the Lions. Still, Matt Patricia and the Lions can use all the talent they can get to help them improve a pass defense which finished 27th in terms of passing yards allowed last season.