Lions safety DeShon Elliott has chance to return in Week 18 vs. Packers

Lions safety DeShon Elliott has missed the last two games with a shoulder injury, but there’s a chance he’s back in action for Week 18 against the Packers.

Heading into a big Week 18 game against the Green Bay Packers, which is a Sunday Night Football showcase opportunity for them win or lose, the Detroit Lions may get a key defensive player back.

Safety DeShon Elliott, the Lions’ second-leading tackler this season with 91 total tackles, has missed the last two games with a left shoulder injury. It seemed he may have been close to playing in Week 17 against the Chicago Bears, but he was held out.

Via Kyle Meinke of MLive, head coach Dan Campbell talked about Elliott on Monday.

"Look, he wants to go,” head coach Dan Campbell said. “He’s improving, and we’ll see what he looks like. Hopefully, we’ll know a lot more (Tuesday), but let him hit some sleds, see how the shoulder feels, and if that’s good, go into practice and just see how it goes, really. But I know he wants to go, and I know he’s improving.”"

Lions: DeShon Elliott openly teased his return to action vs. the Packers

With Monday afternoon’s announcement that Lions at Packers would be Sunday night, Twitter user Everything Lions captured a screen grab from Elliott’s Instagram account.

Elliott posted, with a crying face emoji.

"Y’all thought I would miss this? Gotta get that monyun,”"

All NFL teams canceled media availability on Tuesday out of respect for Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who suffered a cardiac arrest on Monday night and is still listed in critical condition as of the latest update.

So we won’t get a comparatively trivial update on how Elliott’s first test of his injured shoulder went. Campbell suggested he was lined up to “hit some sleds”, then possibly progress to the first practice of the week on Wednesday.

But all signs point to Elliott returning to action for the Lions’ regular season finale, as long as the practice week goes as hoped/planned.