Lions injury report: Several players miss Tuesday's practice

Only three players may have been completely absent from the first day of the Detroit Lions' voluntary minicamp, but several more than that did not take part in practice on Tuesday. That's because it's only April and many players are still recovering from injuries. There's obviously no need to push things at this point in the year, and the list of players out on Tuesday reflected that notion (via Tim Twentyman):

RB Joique Bell
FB Jed Collins
WR Calvin Johnson
WR Ryan Broyles
TE Brandon Pettigrew
OG Rob Sims
DE Jason Jones
DE Ziggy Ansah
DT Vaughn Martin
LB Ashlee Palmer
CB Jonte Green
S Glover Quin

There's no official injury report, so specifics weren't given for what's keeping each player out. However, we know that guys like Johnson, Ansah and Quin had offseason surgery, and Broyles and Jones are still recovering from season-ending injuries from last year. I'm sure the other players are still healing from various bumps and bruises from last season and don't want to rush back for a voluntary minicamp.

On a positive note, Josh Katzenstein reports that tight end Michael Williams and linebacker Cory Greenwood took part in Tuesday's practice. Both players spent the entire 2013 season on injured reserve after getting hurt in the preseason last summer, but they are now good to go.