Category: Lions News

Lions injury update: 2 defenders upgraded in Friday’s practice

Two Lions defenders upgraded in Friday’s practice but 3 offensive starters remain sidelined

There were a couple of notable items about the Detroit Lions practice participation report from Friday’s session in Allen Park.

First, two players who sat out on Thursday upgraded to limited participants on Friday. Defensive tackle Benito Jones (ankle) and linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez (ankle) moved up from not practicing at all into limited duty. That’s an important step for the defensive duo to play on Monday night against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Secondly, there were no new additions on Friday. After having some late-week additions to the practice injury report over the past few weeks, notably Jerry Jacobs in Week 7, that’s a welcome lack of news.

Jacobs was a full participant once again and is expected to be back in the starting lineup for the Raiders game.

Three Lions remained out on Friday:

LG Jonah Jackson (ankle)

RB David Montgomery (ribs)

C Frank Ragnow (toe/calf)

This is not the typical veteran rest for Ragnow. The Pro Bowl center typically takes one practice off per week to help his ailing toe. Now that he’s missed two in a row with the calf also being on the injury designation, it’s fair to question his availability for Monday night.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson claims he’s changed his name once again

Lions DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson claims he’s changed his name to Ceedy Duce once again

It’s been a little while since we heard anything from Lions defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson. The talented, versatile DB suffered a serious injury in the team’s Week 2 loss to the Seattle Seahawks and has been on injured reserve.

It turns out Gardner-Johnson might be a thing of the past. Well, his name, anyway.

According to the player himself, he has formally filed to change his name to Ceedy Duce. He’s gone by that moniker for some time and often refers to himself in the third person as Ceedy Duce too.

From Gardner-Johnson, err, Duce’s Instagram story on Friday afternoon:

It’s not the first name change for the Lions defender. In college at Florida, he was initially known by his birth name, Chauncey Gardner. He added the hyphenation to honor his stepfather and morphed to C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

This also isn’t the first time he’s efforted the name change to Ceedy Duce. According to Saturdays Down South, he did this very same thing while playing for the New Orleans Saints.

Once the paperwork officially hits, we’ll change his name here, too.

Lions CB Jerry Jacobs hilariously shares why he’s a fan of a Raiders running back

Jerry Jacobs and Josh Jacobs are not related, but Jerry is still a big fan of the Raiders RB

Jerry Jacobs will be back in the starting lineup for the Detroit Lions in Week 8. He missed the loss in Baltimore after suffering a knee injury in practice late in the week. So far, he’s been a full participant for the Lions this week as they get ready for the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday Night Football.

Jacobs is happy to be back and ready for a challenging assignment against the talented Raiders offense.

“The Raiders got a good team. Great receiver, one of the best in the game in Davante Adams. The quarterback going to try and get him the ball,” Jacobs said.

Then he got to the Las Vegas running back.

“Probably one of my favorite running backs, even growing up. I thought he was my cousin, Josh Jacobs, but he’s not,” Jerry said with a laugh.

He did get more into why he likes his non-related fellow Jacobs.

“He’s a great running back. Tough runner. Everybody’s got to pursue to the ball to get him down.”

The two Jacobs did face off once in college. In 2018, Jerry was a freshman cornerback at Arkansas State and Josh was a junior running back for Alabama. Jerry did have a tackle in the game but it was not on Josh Jacobs.

Jared Goff not worried about the early lack of success he’s had with Jameson Williams

Lions QB Jared Goff not worried about the early lack of success he’s had with WR Jameson Williams

The first nine games of Jameson Williams’ career in Detroit have not gone anywhere near as well as hoped. “Jamo” has five catches for 96 yards and two touchdowns in those nine games.

The man throwing the ball to Williams, Lions QB Jared Goff, doesn’t seem worried about the early lack of productivity or connection between the two. Goff appreciates the work Williams is putting in to help turn those meager numbers into something much bigger and better.

“It’s so early in his career and his development,” Goff said of Williams this week. “I just keep working, keep working with him, building that trust with him and getting on the same page. He’s working his tail off at practice and has done a great job trying to get better every week and I expect to see his development continue.”

They’ve struggled to connect on the deeper throws thus far, but Goff doesn’t see Williams’ blazing speed as a problem.

 “Yeah, that was, I think, early on trying – figuring that out. I think I’m past that now where I know his speed and we’ve got a good rapport in that way. But yeah, it’s just getting on the same page with everything and again, it’s just so early in his career and his development that it’s just reps, it’s just reps, it’s just time and it’s a matter of time before everything starts to click for him in our offense.”

Monday night’s game against the Raiders provides Goff a great chance to get more in sync with Williams.

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David Montgomery not practicing with the rib injury

Lions RB David Montgomery still not practicing with his rib injury and could miss Week 8 vs. the Raiders

There will be no David Montgomery sighting at Detroit Lions practice on Thursday. His ongoing absence with a rib injury could very well keep him out of Monday night’s matchup with the visiting Las Vegas Raiders, as well.

Head coach Dan Campbell indicated in his press conference before practice that Montgomery would not practice. Campbell noted of Montgomery, “he just continues to improve” and “getting better” but the team is still holding him back from practice.

Montgomery left the Week 6 win over Tampa Bay with what has been revealed to be bruised cartilage in the ribs. He has not practiced since and missed the Week 7 trip to Baltimore. Jahmyr Gibbs started in his place against the Ravens and gained 126 total yards from scrimmage, scoring Detroit’s only touchdown in the loss.

Craig Reynolds is the only other running back on the active roster. Detroit elevated Devine Ozigbo from the practice squad in each of the last two weeks. The Lions also added Jermar Jefferson to the practice squad this week.

Because Detroit has a bye after the Monday night date with the Raiders, there is a common belief that Montgomery will not play in Week 8 to further rest up and heal over the bye.

Dan Campbell: Lions ‘feel pretty good’ at wide receiver after losing Marvin Jones

Dan Campbell: Lions ‘feel pretty good’ at wide receiver after losing Marvin Jones in advance of the NFL trade deadline

Anytime a team unexpectedly loses a player who was on the field for half the snaps, there is a void. The Detroit Lions are facing that now with wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr. stepping away from the team and being released to tend to family matters.

The Jones release happened a week before the NFL’s trade deadline, and that will lead to questions about potentially replacing Jones. Lions head coach Dan Campbell got one of those in his pre-practice press conference on Thursday.

“Certainly appreciate Marvin and what he brought to the table,” Campbell said respectfully. “Wish him the best of luck and he’s always welcome here.”

Campbell was asked about the state of the wide receiver room now that Jones is gone.

“We’re doing pretty good in the receiver room,” Campbell enthused. “We’ve got the five that were up last week. We’ve got some young guys there on the (practice) squad that have been practicing and working. So we feel pretty good.”

The five who were up last week were Amon-Ra St. Brown, Josh Reynolds, Kalif Raymond, Jameson Williams and Antoine Green. Detroit also has Dylan Drummond, Daurice Founain and Maurice Alexander on the practice squad.

The team did host former Lions slot receiver Tom Kennedy on a visit on Wednesday. To this point, that’s the extent of any potential addition to the Detroit receiver room.

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Video: Detroit Lions Podcast on the Lions stumbling upward

Video: Detroit Lions Podcast on the Lions stumbling upward in Week 7 and looking forward at the Raiders matchup

The latest episode of the Detroit Lions Podcast is now available for viewing or download. In this week’s show, recorded live on YouTube on Wednesday night, the focus is on how the Lions can move on from the ugly loss in Baltimore and take out some frustration on the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night.

There were a lot of Lions to blame for the team’s poor showing in Week 7, Which ones were one-off bad days and which were more troubling for potential long-term issues? Also, the Lions somehow moved upward in the NFC standings despite the blowout loss.

It’s also coming up quickly on the NFL trade deadline. There’s a lengthy discussion about what the Lions might do, why they probably won’t do other things, and what the impact of any moves would have beyond the season.

Barry Sanders needs help to prove he’s real

Lions legend Barry Sanders needs help to prove he’s real in combating an automated help desk on LinkedIn.

Update: Sanders posted on X that his LinkedIn account has been restored.

Barry Sanders is one of the greatest NFL players of all time. The Lions legend is fourth on the league’s all-time rushing list and averaged more than 10 rushing yards per game more than any of the trio ahead of him. He’s an icon of both the Lions and the NFL.

Yet Sanders is battling a problem many regular folks face. He’s battling a website to prove that he is, in fact, Barry Sanders.

Sanders went onto X (formerly Twitter) to seek help in convincing LinkedIn that he is really who he claims to be. The professional networking site does not believe Sanders is real.

That’s understandable if they watched his incredible moves on the football field, but this is an automated response that doesn’t show much intelligence, artificial or otherwise.

Even the greatest RB has to deal with the same inane issues as fans.

Brian Branch featured in PFF’s top rookie grades

PFF has ranked their top 15 rookies overall at this point of the season and one Lions defensive rookie made an appearance on the list.

PFF grades are commonplace in the circle of content life at Lions Wire. As the mid-point of the season approaches, we again are leaning on PFF to show us a deeper analysis of the season. The analytics site recently released their list of the top rookies so far this season and a certain young Lion playmaker made the list.

Despite missing the last two weeks, defensive back Brian Branch was able to come in, ranking 14th overall among rookies.

At No. 14 overall and eighth among defensive players specifically, Branch has proven that he was worthy of going much higher in April’s draft. It was seen at the time as too far a drop for one of the best players in college football and his performances against the best of the Lions schedule backs that sentiment up.

In the article posted by PFF, they said about Branch that “while he may have lost his footing a bit this past week, he still boasts a fantastic resume. Branch has produced nine stops in coverage this season, tied for fourth-most by a corner in the league. This has helped contribute to his 77.0 grade, the fourth-best mark in the rookie class.”

Through five games this year, outside of the PFF side of things, Branch has made plays resulting in one interception, four pass deflections, and one defensive touchdown. The rookie will look to make his next set of plays in primetime against the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night.

Home-field advantage is important for Jared Goff

Lions QB Jared Goff has some pretty drastic statistical splits between home games and playing on the road

Home-field advantage is the most important thing in both regular season football, especially the postseason. While it may be week eight, the stats don’t lie, the Lions need to do everything they can to lock down the home-field advantage they earn with the top seed in the NFC.

When looking at the numbers, it can’t be denied that the straw that stirs the Lions offensive cocktail performs much better at home.

Quarterback Jared Goff has seen a career rejuvenation since being traded to Detroit as an asset in the Matthew Stafford deal. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has done a good enough job during his time with Goff that he is now set to be the hottest head coaching candidate this offseason. As for Goff, the stats overall pass the eye test but when you look deeper you see that there is a distinct difference between his performances at home and on the road.

As mentioned above, Goff has now played in 24 games for the Lions and the results of those games are glaring. He has a three-to-one touchdown difference between the two venues and while there will be some outliers, the overall body of work can’t be denied.

The Lions playing meaningful games, playoff games, on the road could be a disaster.

Right now they are sitting pretty despite losing to the Ravens in a blowout last week. They have shown they can handle the stiffer competition the NFL brings out but they can’t use the crutch the defense has provided. Goff needs to win them games on the road, not manage them.

It is one thing to not turn the ball over but he needs to take chances that create plays. Johnson and his play schemes won’t leave him out to dry but it is as much on him to set Goff up for success as it is for the quarterback to create magic.

His next chance on the road will come after a bye against the Chargers.