Second Lions Week 13 injury report suggests 3 notable Thanksgiving absences
The Detroit Lions came out of last Sunday's game against the Indianapolis Colts with a handful of notable injuries, and on a short week before facing the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day head coach Dan Campbell hasn't sounded overly optimistic about more than one of those players.
Practice reports before games during a short week are always estimations of participation, and Monday's wasn't too great-looking for the Lions. Tuesday's update would be more telling, before the final injury report of the week to come on Wednesday.
Let's take a look at Tuesday's practice report for the Lions. (FP=full participant, LP=limited participant, NP=non-participant).
- CB Carlton Davis (knee) NP
- OT Taylor Decker (knee): NP
- WR Kalif Raymond (foot: NP
- RB David Montgomery (shoulder): LP
- WR Amon-Ra St. Brown (knee): LP
- CB Terrion Arnold (groin): FP
- DT DJ Reader (illness): FP
Second Lions Week 13 injury all but confirms 3 players will be out vs. Bears
On Monday, Campbell was not very optimistic about Decker, Raymond and Davis playing against the Bears. He echoed that sentiment during his Tuesday press conference.
"You asked me about the three that I talked about yesterday, I don’t feel as good about those (players),” Campbell said.
In terms of Raymond's foot injury possibly being season-ending, Campbell didn't rule it out.
"Could be, but I don’t know that for sure,” Campbell said. "The first word we got was positive, we’re just waiting on a second opinion."
Decker was immediately optimistic after leaving the Colts' game and coming back in fairly quickly. But Campbell has been nothing but contradictory to that since, and it looks like Decker will not be able to go on Thursday.
Davis was also optimistic about his knee injury after the game against Indianapolis, while acknowledging imaging that needed to be done early in the week. Campbell's words also seem to say Davis will be out on Thursday.
On the positive side, Montgomery and St. Brown were listed as limited on Tuesday's practice estimation after being listed as non-participants on Monday's estimation. On Tuesday Campbell said he feels good about both guys being able to play against the Bears, while noting how hard it would be to keep Montgomery from suiting up against his former team.
“Oh heck no, are you kidding me? No, no, no,” Campbell said, regarding the possibility of keeping Montgomery out of Thursday's game. “And look, David, last week, he wanted to get back in that game. He was good and I held him back just to be on the safe side and he was not happy.”
In the locker room on Tuesday (not that he'd say anything else), St. Brown echoed Campbell's words.
Arnold has been estimated as a full participant on Monday and Tuesday, which is a good sign for his availability on Thursday after missing Week 12.
Reader was listed as an non-participant on Monday due to an illness, but he moved to an estimation of full participation on Tuesday and seems good to go for Thursday.