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The Detroit Lions entered the bye week hobbled and defeated after a costly loss to the New Orleans Saints. Monday they emerged from the break, and we got our first look at how serious some of their injuries may have been.
Let’s start out with the good news. Despite a very serious-looking concussion suffered in the second half of the Saints game, Glover Quin returned to practice on Monday. As pointed out by Nate Atkins of MLive, this means that Quin is in at least Phase 4 (of 5) of the concussion protocol, giving him a real chance to play this week and maintain his streak of 122 consecutive games started.
Additionally, Kenny Golladay, T.J. Lang and Paul Worrilow were practicing on Monday, according to various sources. Golladay has missed the past three games due to a lingering hamstring issue. Worrilow has missed the past two weeks after suffering a knee injury in his first play against the Vikings. And T.J. Lang has been battling a back injury that kept him out of last week’s game against the Saints.
And if there was any worry about Matthew Stafford, he, too was practicing Monday.
Now the bad news:
Glover Quin is practicing on Monday. Lions sitting out are Tate (shoulder), G. Robinson, Cleary and Ebron (paternity)
— Justin Rogers (@Justin_Rogers) October 23, 2017
Golden Tate, as expected, was sidelined on Monday due to his shoulder injury. Over the weekend, Tate was spotted wearing a sling for at least part of the day (via his Instagram account). Early reports suggest Tate has a AC joint sprain and is expected to miss a couple of weeks.
Both Greg Robinson and Emmett Cleary missed practice after suffering ankle injuries in the Saints game. Both Robinson and Cleary were spotted wearing boots after the game.
If neither can go on Sunday, the Lions may have to rely on Brian Mihalik as their starting left tackle or newly acquired Bryce Harris. As of now, Taylor Decker remains on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list and has not practiced with the team, even though he is now eligible to join the roster. Even if Decker returns to practice later in the week, it seems unlikely he’ll be ready by Sunday night’s game against the Steelers.