Lions injury updates: Jeff Okudah doing individual drills, Taylor Decker sitting out

The Detroit Lions began their spring organized team activities (OTAs) this week and on Thursday the media was given their first access to the voluntary event. As usual, coach Dan Campbell met with the media ahead of practice and provided updates on several players currently dealing with injuries.

Let’s take a quick look at which players were addressed.

Jeff Okudah, Achilles

We have seen Okudah post videos of his recovery process throughout the offseason, and the Lions published pictures of him on the field with his helmet on after Wednesday’s OTA practice, suggesting he was nearing a return from injury.

On Thursday, Campbell confirmed Okudah was indeed on the field and available during OTAs, but he was currently still limited to only doing individual drills.

Romeo Okwara, Achilles

Okwara isn’t as far along in the recovery process as Okudah, but Campbell did mention that he was “progressing” in his rehabilitation.

“We’ll see,” Campbell said about when they expect Okwara and Okudah to be contributing. “To be honest with you, it’s hard to put a timeline on that. We will see what they look like when we get them in here in camp, and see what this next month of recovery does for them. So, we will make that assessment then.”

Jerry Jacobs, ACL

Earlier in May, Jacobs has suggested he is ahead in his rehabilitation schedule, and while Campbell didn’t provide a timeline, he did note that he “is doing well”.

Jameson Williams, ACL

At last week’s rookie minicamp, Campbell gave some updates on Williams’ injury:

“Yeah, he’s already asked about doing JUGS,” Campbell said. “No, he’s good. We’ve got him watching right now. (Head Athletic Trainer) Kevin Bastin was with him a little bit yesterday, he and James Mitchell both. They’re both coming off the ACL. They’re out there, they’re watching, then once that’s over we have them doing a couple things just to assess where they’re at. We don’t have them involved, that’s not the point. But mentally, they are very much involved.”

On Thursday, Campbell noted that not much has changed from last week’s rookie minicamp, other than that “he’s a week better” than he was.

Taylor Decker, Not disclosed

Campbell was evasive about Decker’s injury but he did clarify it was a new injury, not a carryover from last season—during the Lions’ season finale Decker suffered a foot injury.

Campbell would go on to note that the injury isn’t significant enough that it would have kept him out of a game if they played this week, but they didn’t want to push it at this time of the year. Therefore, they are “being smart with him” and he is not going to practice in OTAs at this time. Even though OTAs are voluntary, Decker is in the building with the team and participating in other ways.