Friday open thread: Which Lions player is more crucial to their success: Glover Quin or Golden Tate?

The Detroit Lions are still a team very much hampered by injury, despite coming off their bye week. Two of their most important players—one on each side of the ball—are trying to recover from somewhat serious injuries suffered against the Saints game.

Golden Tate is recovering from a shoulder injury that forced him into a sling over the weekend. Surprisingly, Tate has practiced—albeit limited—on both Wednesday and Thursday, opening up a serious possibility to play this week, despite initial reports suggesting he’ll be sidelined for a few weeks.

Additionally, safety Glover Quin suffered a very serious-looking concussion in the second half of the Saints game. It appeared Quin may miss an extended amount of time considering how disoriented he looked and how long he stayed down, but Quin has been a full participant in practice this week and spoke to the media on Thursday, suggesting he has completely passed through concussion protocol already. Chances are pretty good he’ll play on Sunday.

So today’s Question of the Day is:

Which player, Quin or Tate, is more key to Detroit’s success against the Steelers on Sunday?

My answer: I expect this game to already be a low-scoring affair, but if Detroit is hoping to outscore Pittsburgh, I have a hard time seeing that happening without their biggest offensive threat in Golden Tate. He’s the cornerstone to this offense, and with Kenny Golladay potentially missing his fourth straight game, the Lions need Tate more than ever against a good Steelers defense.

While Quin is the undeniable leader of the Lions defense, they have enough talent in the secondary to compensate for his loss—even though that seems unlikely at this point. Detroit’s defense could potentially survive without Quin, but I don’t know how the offense would succeed without Tate. So let’s hope this Golden Tate tweet from Thursday night is a sign of things to come this week:

Your turn.