Lions injury recap: Updates on Golden Tate, Greg Robinson, Glover Quin

The Detroit Lions didn’t only lose a much-needed win in the NFC on Sunday, but they lost the services of three key starters due to injury. The team is always very scarce on details regarding injuries, but here’s what we know about the key injuries as of Sunday night.

Glover Quin

Quin suffered a very serious-looking concussion in the third quarter of the game. Quin was attempting to make a tackle on Saints running back Alvin Kamara and eventually received a knee to the head from teammate A’Shawn Robinson. Quin appeared motionless after the contact was initially made and was down for several minutes.

Per the concussion protocol, Quin was not made available to the media after the game. Other Lions players, like Darius Slay, were devastated by the injury:

Tavon Wilson also suffered a minor injury later in the same drive, but returned to the game.

Golden Tate

Tate suffered a shoulder injury after taking back-to-back hits in the third quarter. He did not return to the game after initially being named questionable to return.

Again, the team did not offer any postgame comments on Tate’s injury, but there was one troubling sign: Tate was not made available for postgame comment to the media.

From Dave Birkett:

Wide receiver Golden Tate left later in the period with a shoulder injury that was bad enough that he did not make appear in the locker room when it was open to media members after the game.

A Lions trainer took Tate's clothes out of his locker in order for him to avoid the media.

Given that the team is off this week, it’s unlikely the team will give an update on Tate, unless it requires a roster move. Hopefully the extra week of rest will be enough for him to be ready against the Steelers in Week 8.

Greg Robinson

Robinson was another casualty of the third quarter, going down with an ankle injury towards the end of the stanza. He would not return, and the prognosis looking forward does not look good:

Robinson had obviously struggled in his six weeks as the Lions’ starting left tackle, but Detroit has no depth at the position and when Brian Mihalik came in as a relief, he didn’t look any better.

Detroit is still waiting for their true starting left tackle, Taylor Decker, to come back from his torn labrum surgery. Decker, who remains on the Physically Unable to Perform list, is now eligible to return, if healthy, but there is no guarantee he’ll be ready by Week 8.

T.J. Lang

Lang did not play on Sunday after landing on the inactive list. According to his replacement, Emmett Cleary, that was not the original plan. Lang reportedly suffered a setback with his back injury and Cleary was told just two hours before the game that he would be the starter.

Considering Lang played with the same back injury last week against the Panthers, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll be ready in two weeks for the Steelers, but this is also apparently a bigger issue than previously thought.

We’ll see head coach Jim Caldwell provides any updates on these injuries on Monday, but don’t expect anything.