The Detroit Lions are dealing with a long list of injuries, and it was added to on Thanksgiving Day against the Chicago Bears. They have another Thursday game this week against the Green Bay Packers, except it’s more of a typical game week with an actual seven days between games.
Before game statuses for Thursday night’s game come out on Wednesday, Tuesday’s practice report was lined up to be telling about some injured players for the Lions. Just like the Thursday practice report before a normal Sunday game, if we’re getting right down to it.
With that in mind, here’s a look at the Lions’ practice report for Tuesday. (FP=Full participant, LP=Limited participant, NP=Non-participant
- OT Taylor Decker (knee): NP
- DL Levi Onwuzurike (hamstring): NP
- DL Josh Paschal (knee): NP
- DT DJ Reader (shoulder): NP
- CB Carlton Davis (knee): FP
- CB Emmanuel Moseley (hamstring): FP
Head coach Dan Campbell was not overly optimistic about Paschal and Onwuzurike playing against the Packers after they were injured on Thanksgiving Day. On Tuesday, the tone was not greatly changed.
“I think the rest of it’s going to take a minute here (after mentioning some other injured players, it was down to Onwuzuruke and Paschal),” Campbell said. “(We’ll) see what today and tomorrow look like.”
Decker missed Thanksgiving Day against the Bears with a knee injury from the previous Sunday, and before Tuesday’s practice Campbell offered a blunt assessment of the left tackle’s status for Thursday night.
“I don’t feel as good about Decker for this week,” Campbell said.
Reader appeared to suffer a shoulder injury on Thanksgiving Day, but he was able to return to that game and the injury seemed to not be a concern. Not practicing on Monday or Tuesday is an automatic concern for his ability to play on Thursday night, and on Tuesday Campbell called him “kind of a day-to-day deal here.”
Decker, Reader, Paschal and Onwuzurike are definitely trending toward being out on Thursday night. In Decker’s case, Campbell all but said he will miss his third game in the last five.
On a positive note, Davis moved to full practice participation on Tuesday and before practice Campbell said “I feel pretty good there.”
Moseley was a surprising scratch last week after something popped up late (a hamstring issue, apparently), but two straight full practices points to him being able to play on Thursday night.
