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The good news keeps coming for the Detroit Lions regarding the two injuries suffered on Friday night. Lions head coach Matt Patricia confirmed on Saturday afternoon that neither the injury to Jarrad Davis nor the one to Frank Ragnow are considered season-ending injuries.
“These injuries are not season ending,” Patricia said on a teleconference. “They’ll be healing day-by-day. We’re still evaluating where they’ll be at. The one great thing about these two guys is they have tremendous work ethic, and we know they’re going to be working as hard as they can to get back as soon as possible.”
Patricia said the team will not put a specific timetable on either player, but when asked if injured reserve was a possibility for either player—even with the stipulation for the players to return—Patricia said no.
“Right now, no. None of these are in that category,” Patricia said.
That means that not only are the Lions expecting to get both players back this season, but they aren’t expecting either to miss more than eight weeks—the minimum time a player would miss if placed on injured reserve.
Earlier on Saturday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted that Ragnow avoided a major injury and has just been diagnosed with a minor ankle sprain. There’s a possibility he doesn’t miss any regular season time, according to sports medicine doctor Jessica Flynn.
It didn’t seem like Jarrad Davis was destined for good news, however. Based on video of the play, former NFL doctor David J. Chao said the best case scenario was a “severe high ankle sprain.” However, this news suggests we will see Jarrad Davis again in 2019, which is obviously great news for the Detroit Lions, who drafted him in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft.
Patricia also clarified, just in case you were wondering, that neither player would play in the preseason finale against the Browns. Thanks for that, coach.