Lions Place Drayton Florence On Injured Reserve, Designate Him To Return

The Detroit Lions have opened up a spot on their 53-man roster for running back Mikel Leshoure by placing cornerback Drayton Florence on injured reserve. Leshoure practiced on Wednesday, and the Lions' roster exemption for him expired at 4 p.m. this afternoon. In order to clear room for Leshoure to return to the active roster, the Lions needed to make a move, and they decided on putting Florence on IR.

It's important to note that Florence has been designated to return from injured reserve by the Lions. Thanks to the new rules that went into place this season, each team can designate one player on IR to return later in the season. The Lions decided to give Florence this designation, meaning he will be eligible to practice six weeks from now and play eight weeks from now.

Florence had surgery on his broken right forearm on Tuesday. He actually got hurt in the third quarter of Sunday's game against the San Francisco 49ers, but he managed to finish the game.

CB Drayton Florence broke his forearm in 3rd quarter Sun. and played the rest of game, according to Schwartz. Didn't tell anyone.

— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) September 19, 2012

With Florence designated to return, the Lions will get him back for the stretch run of the season, assuming he's healthy by then.

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