Report: Tim Boyle likely to start for Lions on Thanksgiving Day

It’s not a shocking revelation with a short week coming, but Tim Boyle is likely to start for the Lions on Thanksgiving Day as well. 

Unable to practice this past week due to an oblique injury suffered against the Steelers in Week 10, Jared Goff will watch on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns while Tim Boyle makes his first NFL start.

The Lions will then have a short week before taking on the Chicago Bears Thanksgiving Day. So the idea Goff would miss at least two games was not a reach, and on Sunday morning ESPN’s Adam Schefter practically confirmed as much.

"It is considered unlikely that Goff will be recovered in enough time for Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day game against the Chicago Bears, leaving Boyle with the opportunity to make another start for the Lions.The Lions haven’t addressed what would happen if Boyle were to play well, but there is a belief around the league that Detroit’s quarterback situation for this season and beyond is very much in flux."

Tim Boyle has a clear opportunity in front of him

Whether he plays particularly well against the Browns or not, Boyle is in line for another chance to start against the Bears. David Blough may be popular with his teammates and “well-liked within the organization”, as Schefter suggested, but it’s telling that any idea of a quarterback change (with Goff healthy or not) waited for Boyle to be ready to come off IR after thumb surgery late in the preseason.

If the Lions beat the Browns on Sunday with Boyle under center, and/or beat the Bears with more of the world watching during the Thanksgiving early game with him starting again, they will have a quarterback controversy on their hands.

Schefter was not breaking any news or offering some great revelation to suggest the team’s quarterback situation is “in flux” for the rest of this season and beyond. Offering up the premise of Boyle playing well as any cause for said flux is a minor detail in that bigger picture. But there’s no mistaking the former undrafted free agent has a clear opportunity in front of him, starting Sunday and continuing at least until Goff is healthy enough to play.