The Detroit Lions are 9-4, but it's fair to say they are reeling a bit with two losses in their last three games. A bit of good news has been relatively short injury reports on a daily and weekly basis since the Week 9 bye, despite the singular absences of some key players over that stretch (Jonah Jackson, Alex Anzalone, Frank Ragnow).
In Week 15 the Lions will take on the Denver Broncos, winners of six of their last seven to put themselves in playoff contention, at home on the Saturday night primetime stage.
Ragnow missed last week's loss to the Chicago Bears with a knee injury he suffered the previous week against the New Orleans Saints. He was a limited participant in practice all week this week, and was listed as questionable for Saturday night's game.
Quarterback Hendon Hooker is out (still on the NFI list), while left tackle Taylor Decker (back), wide receiver Josh Reynolds (back) and defensive tackle Benito Jones (neck) joined Ragnow as questionable.
Otherwise on the injury front, it will be interesting to see if veteran edge rusher Bruce Irvin is back in action after dealing with an ankle injury last week. Rather than have him play with a bad ankle on a rough surface at Soldier Field, the Lions did not use one of Irvin's standard practice squad elevations in Week 14.
Here is the inactives list the for the Lions in Week 15.
Detroit Lions inactives: Week 15 vs. Denver Broncos
- K Riley Patterson
- EDGE Charles Harris
- EDGE Julian Okwara
- WR Antoine Green
- CB Chase Lucas
- CB Steven Gilmore
- LB Trevor Nowaske
After missing an extra point, Patterson will be replaced as the Lions' kicker by Michael Badgley, who was elevated from the practice squad earlier on Saturday.
With Bruce Irvin also being elevated from the practice squad on Saturday, Harris and Julian Okwara are healthy scratches.
All five Lions' starting offensive lineman are in the lineup Saturday night, with Ragnow and Decker active.
And here are Week 15's inactives for the Broncos.
- OLB Nik Bonitto
- TE Nate Adkins
- QB Ben Dinucci
- S JL Skinner
- C Alex Forsyth
- LB Ben Niemann
- DE Elijah Garcia