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Lions Sign Veteran Cornerback Drayton Florence

By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak

ALLEN PARK (CBS DETROIT) - The Detroit Lions announced Thursday before practice that the team has signed veteran cornerback Drayton Florence.

Florence played for the Carolina Panthers last season and recorded 26 tackles and two interceptions in 14 games.

He previously played eight games for the Lions in 2012.

Florence played for the Buffalo Bills from 2009 to 2011, for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2008 and for the San Diego Chargers for his first five seasons in the NFL.

Entering his 11th season, Florence has played in 157 games in his career.

The Lions secondary struggled last season, and new head coach Jim Caldwell acknowledged - vaguely - Wednesday that there were positions on the team where depth could be an issue.

"There's a couple," Caldwell said. "That's always a big thing, how much wear and tear maybe a position is taking on. You have to consider those things. If it gets thin, we certainly have to bolster it, just to make certain that we have enough guys to go in to keep us from having to maybe put too much heavy lifting on one of the guys that we certainly know are going to play for us."

Given Thursday's addition of Florence, it seems cornerback could have been one of the positions Caldwell was referencing.

The projected starting cornerbacks - different from last season because of the offseason release of injury-plagued veteran Chris Houston - for the Lions are Rashean Mathis and Darius Slay.

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