It’s been 12 days since we’ve seen wide receiver Denzel Mims on the Detroit Lions practice field. Mims got hurt in a friendly-fire practice collision with safety Tracy Walker on August 5th and has not been seen since.
It’s a disappointing development for the Lions and Mims, who the team traded for earlier this offseason. Based on what Lions head coach Dan Campbell said before Thursday’s practice, it might already be the end of the line for Mims in Detroit.
In his pre-practice press conference, Campbell was asked directly about Mims. But immediately before the inquisition on Mims, Campbell was asked if the team was looking to bring in any wide receiver help.
Campbell’s response,
“We’re kind of in that a little bit. We potentially may need to add somebody after today. We’re looking into that … to do that, you have to move on from somebody.”
It’s an important pretext for the answer and the tone Campbell gave when talking about Mims.
“He’s in the room,” Campbell blankly said of Mims.
When asked if Mims was close to returning, Campbell responded,
“We’ll see. Wish I could give you more.”
With Jameson Williams likely out for the preseason and Amon-Ra St. Brown hobbled with an ankle injury suffered in Wednesday’s practice, the Lions have a shortage of bodies at the position. Mims had been working as Williams’ primary backup in the early part of training camp, but that has been derailed with the unspecified leg injury.
It is extremely difficult to not read between the lines Campbell drew on Mims, though the coach did not directly or overtly indicate that Mims’ status with the team was in peril.