Bruce Irvin not likely to make his Detroit Lions debut vs. Packers on Thanksgiving Day

Tuesday marked one week since the Detroit Lions signed veteran edge rusher Bruce Irvin to their practice squad. The turnaround was too quick for him to play last Sunday against the Chicago Bears, but Thanksgiving Day against the Green Bay Packers seemed more possible.

Having not played since Seattle's playoff loss in January, and having not been in training camp anywhere, the 36-year old Irvin acknowledged sheerly having to get into proper football shape after his first practice with the team.

"I don't care how much you work out, there's nothing like wearing pads and a helmet," Irvin said. "Once I get a couple days with that, I think I should be good to at least contribute next week in some type of way."

"Next week" was Irvin's suggestion he could play on Thanksgiving Day. But with the Lions not having a real practice on a short week, the odds of that were naturally diminished.

Bruce Irvin unlikely to make Lions' debut Thanksgiving Day vs. Packers

On Tuesday, via Ben Raven of MLive, head coach Dan Campbell was asked if Irvin could be activated on a short week.

"I still don’t see that happening, not right now,” Campbell said on Tuesday. “We want to be smart. We want to be smart with how we do it. And he’s -- look, he’s working, he’s learning it, he’s in good shape and I just think just want to be smart with how we proceed here."

The Lions have a group of healthy edge rushers right now, which only adds to not having to rush anything with Irvin. He has been praised by Campbell for the shape he showed up in ("superhuman genes" was the line Campbell used), but as everyone has acknowledged football shape is a different thing than what amounts to workout shape.

So Irvin's Lions' debut is now fully lined up to come in Week 13 (Dec. 3) on the road against the New Orleans Saints.