D’Andre Swift ‘trending in the right direction’ to play vs. Packers

The Detroit Lions offense may get another shot in the arm this week, as it looks like rookie running back D’Andre Swift is headed towards a return this Sunday. Swift has missed the past three games with a concussion and illness, but interim head coach Darrell Bevell said on Friday morning that after a solid practice on Thursday, his outlook is good this week.

“(He) had another good day yesterday,” Bevell said. “As I’ve told you, it’s a day-to-day thing in terms of—they’ve got to make it through, they’ve got to come in today, they’ve got to feel good today, and then one more practice. But I would say he’s trending in the right direction.”

Swift has been a limited participant on both Wednesday and Thursday—the first time he’s practiced in back-to-back days since suffering his concussion. Later on Friday, the Lions will take the practice field for the last time this week before giving Swift a game designation.

If he returns this week, it could make a big difference against the Green Bay Packers. Their NFC North rival currently has the eighth-worst run defense (by DVOA), and the last time Swift played, he racked up 149 all-purpose yards and a touchdown in his first career NFL start.

While there’s a chance the Lions ease him back into the lineup, Bevell said earlier in the week that may not be necessary if he gets enough work in during the week of practice.

“If you only get to practice on the end of the week on a Friday, then it’s probably going to be a little bit more of a limited role. If you get a full week’s practice, then there’s going to be, obviously, more opportunity for you to do more,” Bevell said.

Unfortunately for Detroit, they may be waiting another week or two for No. 1 receiver Kenny Golladay to jump back into the lineup. Golladay has yet to practice this week, and while Bevell said there’s a chance he practices on Friday, it doesn’t sound like he’ll have much of a role, if any, on Sunday.

“If he could go today and show us, then I would be good with him playing, but the things is, it’s important that it would be in a certain role,” Bevell said. “There’s a ramping up period to make sure that these guys aren’t going to injure something else with all of a sudden going from zero to 60. So we’ll see what happens today.”