Lions Will Likely Be Without Matthew Stafford on Thanksgiving; Calvin Johnson Also Out?

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Let's go with the good news: Matthew Stafford's shoulder injury does not appear to be of the long-term variety.  Jim Schwartz called the injury an AC joint separation, which can either be a rather minor injury or one that requires surgery.  It all depends on the severity of it, and considering Schwartz didn't seem too worried about the long-term effects, my guess is that it isn't very serious.

The bad news is that Stafford probably won't be able to play on Thursday.  Schwartz was pretty vague when discussing Stafford's status for Thursday, but he did say this:

"There’s a chance that goes away in the next couple days, but structurally, everything’s good," coach Jim Schwartz said today. "I don’t think there’s any lasting damage, but he’s extremely sore, as you can expect."

If this wasn't the week of Thanksgiving where the Lions have such a quick turnaround from one game to the next, I think there would be a chance that Stafford wouldn't miss any time whatsoever.  Since he only can rest for three full days, though, the chances of him playing are not good, especially when you consider that the Lions aren't going to rush him back too quickly.

There is another dose of bad news in the form of Calvin Johnson's status for Thursday.  I said in the drive-by-drive breakdown that although my faith in Daunte Culpepper is not very high, at least if he started he would have Calvin Johnson to throw to this time around.  Well, that may not be the case.

Wide receiver Calvin Johnson also could miss the Thanksgiving Day game. He was listed on the injury report today with hand and knee injuries. Asked whether Johnson would play, Schwartz said: "We’ll see."

If both Stafford and Megatron are out, I'm going to just chalk this game up as a loss.  We saw how bad the Lions' offense was against Green Bay earlier this season when those two players were out, and I really don't things would be much different this time.  Sure, it's in Detroit and on Thanksgiving, but I think it would take a miracle for the Lions to even make this competitive without Stafford and Calvin.  I hope I'm wrong, but like I said, we saw what happened the first time the Lions and Packers played and Stafford and Calvin watched from the sideline.