Lions DE Josh Paschal suffers injury, could miss ‘a little bit’ of time

At the beginning of his press conference on Friday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell dropped some unfortunate news. Second-year defensive lineman Josh Paschal suffered an injury on Thursday, and he will not be practicing on Friday.

“Paschal had a little bit of an episode yesterday injury-wise, so he won’t be going today,” Campbell said.

When asked how significant the injury is, Campbell noted that it wasn’t considered serious, but he’s likely to miss some time.

“I don’t think serious, but I think there is a chance—we’ll know more today—but there is a chance he could be out for a little bit,” Campbell said. “But I don’t feel like this is something to be a season-ending type of deal.”

It’s a tough break for Paschal, who had a strong start to his sophomore season. On Thursday against the Kansas City Chiefs, he tallied three tackled on just 17 snaps, including this key third-down stop to help the Lions hold a lead late in the fourth quarter.

Prior to his injury this week, the plan was to increase his defensive role following his solid 2023 debut.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that he was effective in that manner,” defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said of Paschal this week. “I expect him to continue to grow in the positions that we have him in, so you will see him out there more. I think he had like maybe 30 plays. He’s continuing to grow so you’ll see him out there more.”

The silver lining here is that the Lions have strong defensive line depth. Last week, the Lions had two healthy scratches on their defensive line in nose tackle Isaiah Buggs and edge defender Romeo Okwara. Campbell suggested both could be active to help compensate for the loss of Paschal.

“Here’s some good news, we’ve got some depth. We’ve got depth. We’ve got Buggs, we’ve got Romeo. So we’ve got options, which is good,” Campbell said.

Other inside/outside options along the defensive line who could see their role increase this week include John Cominsky, Levi Onwuzurike and James Houston. All three of those players played in less than half of the defensive snaps last week, so don’t be surprised to see their roles increase this week against the Seattle Seahawks.