A prominent piece of Saturday's reports out of Detroit Lions practice was Penei Sewell's absence. On Sunday morning, before a light practice, head coach Dan Campbell revealed the young star right tackle is in concussion protocol and will be out a few more days at least.
Penei Sewell in concussion protocol. Dan Campbell says he's out until at least Wednesday.
— Ben Raven (@BenjaminSRaven) July 30, 2023
Sewell was able to finish Friday's practice, and he spoke to the media afterward. So he must have reported symptoms when he arrived on Saturday morning, or someone noticed something was off with him, and he was placed in concussion protocol.
The NFL's stringent protocol for head injuries mandates Sewell miss some time, and clear some benchmarks before he can return to practice. But, per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Campbell did say he is doing well.
"But he's doing good," Campbell said before practice Sunday. "He was good yesterday, so moving right along. Just trying to be safe.""
Caution is the easy word with Penei Sewell's head injury
Apart from the league's concusion protocol as it relates to Sewell, caution is the word with any injury for any prominent Lions' player at this stage. The way he's wired Sewell wants to be out there, and wants to be back on the practice field ASAP. But if he's ultimately held out of full practice this entire coming week it would not be surprising at all.
Matt Nelson took first-team reps at right tackle in Sewell's place on Saturday, as expected for the Lions' primary backup offensive tackle. Obinna Eze and Germain Ifedi would also be in line for more prominent practice reps while Sewell is sidelined, so as is the case with these situations there's opportunity when someone is not able to practice during training camp.
Head injuries can be very tricky. But at this point there should not be any huge alarm bells regarding Sewell. Just protocol to follow based on whatever happened, and caution in correlation with it.