Hendon Hooker, Julian Okwara are now eligible to return to active roster

The Detroit Lions currently have nine players on injury lists and over the next few weeks, many of those players will become eligible to be activated from their injury designations.

Here’s an overview of those injured players and when they are eligible to return:

• QB Hendon Hooker (ACL): NFI — eligible to return in Week 5
• QB Nate Sudfeld (ACL): IR — season-ending
• TE Shane Zylstra (knee): IR — season-ending
• OT Matt Nelson (ankle): IR — eligible to return in Week 8
• EDGE Julian Okwara (undisclosed): IR — eligible to return in Week 5
• EDGE Josh Paschal (knee): IR — eligible to return in Week 6
• EDGE James Houston (fibula): IR — eligible to return in Week 7
• CB Khalil Dorsey (illness): IR — eligible to return in Week 6
• DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson (pectoral): IR — eligible to return in Week 7

It’s worth noting that NFL teams are only eligible to return eight players from injured reserve in a given season, and with eight players already on the list at the quarter-mark of the season, they may not want to burn through their options too quickly.

Additionally, removing a player from an injury list and placing them on the active roster requires an open space on the 53-man roster. The Lions do currently have an open spot, but that also seems destined to go to wide receiver Jameson Williams, who saw his suspension reduced and will be reinstated on Monday.

Furthermore, there will be a lot of situations where players required surgery, and even though they are eligible to return, they will likely have a much longer recovery period. Gardner-Johnson is a perfect example of this. While he is eligible to return in Week 7, he’s closer to returning in Week 17, if at all.

On the flip side, several players could very well return at their first opportunity and two of those players are eligible to return this week: Hooker and Okwara.

Hooker tore his ACL last November and has been steadily progressing through the rehabilitation process. Hooker was believed to be close to returning to full health by the beginning of the season, but after not practicing during training camp, he is behind in his acclimation process—a critical element of the quarterback position.

Add in the fact that the Lions have veteran Teddy Bridgewater as Jared Goff's direct backup, and veteran David Blough helping run things via the practice squad, and there is absolutely no reason for the Lions to rush Hooker back. He may actually be better served by learning behind the scenes and absorbing as much information as possible. At the same time, the Lions have previously said, they do plan on activating him at some point during the season. But in Week 5, with the team 3-1 on the year, it seems a bit premature.

Okwara injured himself in the preseason, and the Lions made sure to keep him on the active roster through cutdowns so that they could place him on injured reserve where he could return during the regular season.

Okwara has been getting in work with trainers at practices and looks like he may be close to returning. And with Houston—the Lions’ other pure SAM linebacker—also on injured reserve, Okwara could not only be activated but have an immediate role as well.

When asked about the statuses of Hooker and Okwara, and if the team had made a decision on activating either, coach Dan Campbell punted on his answer, saying they were still considering their options.

“(general manager) Brad (Holmes) and I have talked just a little bit about it, but we’re not ready to commit to what we want to do just yet, on that,” Campbell said. “We’ll kind of gauge this as we go through the week. Talk about what Carolina presents to us, but also just long-term.”

So for now, we will wait for a decision from the Lions. And while we wait, we at Pride of Detroit will continue to provide updates on all the players on the injury lists in our initial injury report of each week.