Lions RB D’Andre Swift misses Friday practice, won’t play vs. Panthers

Just a week after his first career NFL start, Detroit Lions rookie running back D’Andre Swift is almost certain to miss Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers. On Friday, Swift did not practice for the second straight day as he recovers from a concussion.

Though the concussion protocols aren’t completely clear to the public, there is no realistic way for Swift to clear before Sunday. A player has to exhibit no symptoms both after non-contact and full contact football activities, and seeing as the Lions only have a walkthrough remaining before Sunday, Swift will not play this week.

Prior to Friday’s practice, head coach Matt Patricia left a small window open for Swift to play, but implied it wasn’t likely to happen.

“It makes it difficult,” Patricia said of Swift’s current timeline. “We’ll kind of see what the rest of today looks like, and then obviously put all of that into play here when we put our injury report out. But it is difficult.”

Without Swift, the Lions will likely split time between Adrian Peterson and Kerryon Johnson. Patricia expressed his confidence in his crew, which also includes veteran Jonathan Williams.

“So, obviously with Adrian, with Kerryon and ‘J-Will’, we’re good. We’ll just keep rolling with those guys too.”

In other bad news for Detroit, both Kenny Golladay and Danny Amendola missed Friday’s practice. Golladay had returned on Wednesday, but has now missed the past two practices. When asked if the team is simply managing Golladay’s snaps considering the Lions will also be playing next Thursday for Thanksgiving, Patricia noted it is something they are considering.

“We’re trying to be smart with everybody here, knowing that we have two games really close together back-to-back,” Patricia said.

Amendola, on the other hand, hasn’t practiced at all this week since suffering a hip injury against Washington. The Lions could very well bring up Mohamed Sanu from the practice squad to help Detroit’s shorthanded receiving crew. We’ll know more later on Friday when the Lions drop their full injury report, and keep an eye out on Saturday, as some players may be downgraded to out when the team travels to Carolina.