Tag: Matthew Stafford

Lions add another 3 players to an already extensive injury report

After a Week 10 loss to the Chicago Bears, the Detroit Lions added another three players to an already extensive injury report.

In Week 10, the Detroit Lions (3-5-1) were on the wrong end of another one-score game, this time falling to the Chicago Bears, but the scoreboard wasn’t the only place the team lost — as the Lions added another three players to an already extensive injury report.

As the Lions head into Week 11, and a matchup with the Dallas Cowboys, the team needs to get healthy in several key areas.

Here’s what we know about all the team’s current injuries:

The Franchise

QB Matthew Stafford (back, hip)

Stafford’s start streak ended at 136 games due to a fractured bone in his back. Reports have been mixed, suggesting he could recover and return to game action as soon as this week or miss multiple games — ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported a source told him Stafford could be sidelined as few as one and as many as “3 weeks”.

When coach Matt Patricia was asked if Stafford’s fracture could be season-ending, he responded, “For us right now, I’m not getting into the specifics of what it is exactly. It’s day by day, week by week. We’ll see how it goes
from that aspect of it and see how everything just progresses, I guess.”

Not a lot of clarity there.

This fractured bone in his back injury is separate from the injury that required him to have back surgery last offseason and is also not related to his current hip injury that he has been suffering through for over a month now.

With the Lions’ playoff hopes all but shattered, and Stafford dealing with multiple injuries for a significant length of time now, it’s fair to wonder if the team would be better served shutting Stafford down for the season and allowing him to fully heal — Our own Scott Warheit believes they should do just that.

Injured during the game

RB Ty Johnson (concussion)
RT Rick Wagner (concussion)
DT Kevin Strong (rib)
DT Mike Daniels (foot before the game, leg during the game)
DT A’Shawn Robinson (ankle before, thumb during)
CB Darius Slay (hamstring before, toe during)

Johnson and Wagner were ruled out of Sunday’s game and will be in concussion protocol to start the week. The NFL has a five-step recovery protocol that players must pass before they can return to participation. This is an extensive process and typically takes at least a week’s worth of practices to complete if not more.

Strong injured his ribs and exited the game in the second half. He was listed as questionable but I did not see him return to the field on Sunday.

Daniels, Robinson and Slay were all dealing with an injury heading into this game and then suffered new injuries that forced them to leave the field for brief periods of time. Robinson and Slay returned to game action, while Daniels replied to reporters after the game that he was “fine”.

Ruled out before the game

DL Da’Shawn Hand (ankle)
S Tracy Walker (knee)
LB/S Miles Killebrew (concussion)
DE Romeo Okwara (groin)

No updates on these players until the team reports to practice on Wednesday.

Injured heading into the game

RG Graham Glasgow (back)
LG Joe Dahl (ankle)
DT Damon Harrison (groin)
P Sam Martin (abdomen)

All four players in this section were able to play their full complement of snaps on Sunday and expectations are that they will be participants at practice, even if it in a limited fashion.

Jeff Driskel on Matthew Stafford: ‘having his presence there was huge’

Stafford still showed leadership and competitiveness despite not being able to play

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Jeff Driskel made his debut as the Detroit Lions starting quarterback in Week 10. He wasn’t terrible, guiding the team to a field goal on the opening drive and leading the Lions in rushing while completing 26-of-38 pass attempts.

Driskel was in the lineup only because Matthew Stafford was forced to end his 136 consecutive game streak with broken bones in his back. But Stafford was still actively involved on the Detroit sideline, advising Driskel after every possession.

The young backup clearly appreciated the help from Stafford. Driskel was asked if he leaned on Stafford on the sidelines.

“I think his presence is huge,” Driskel said after the game. “He’s the unquestioned leader of this team and one of the toughest dudes I’ve ever been around, most competitive people I’ve ever been around. So yeah, having his presence there was huge, not just for me but for the whole team. So yeah, it was awesome to have him there and he had my back just like I have his back when he’s out there.”

Driskel realized how tough it must be for Stafford to not be out there leading the team on the field. He talked about how great of a leader that makes No. 9.

“Yeah, I’m sure it was tough, everybody wants to be out there competing on the field and he’s done it for a long time at a high level, don’t know the exact number of starts that he’s had in a row, but it’s definitely up there. I think it’s since 2011 he hasn’t missed a start. It’s just a testament to him as a person, as a teammate and a competitor.”

Stafford’s status is undetermined for Week 11 and beyond. Driskel showed enough in his relief role to at least give the Lions a fighting chance…with Stafford in his ear helping out.

The Detroit Lions should sit Matthew Stafford for his own good

The Detroit Lions should shutdown quarterback Matthew Stafford for the season, for his own good — and the teams.

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You could forgive Matthew Stafford for not knowing quite what to do with himself. After all, for the past 136 games, each and every time the Detroit Lions took the field on Sunday (or Monday, or Thursday, or even the occasional Saturday), he was there, commanding the huddle, trying to lead his team to victory.

So it had to be a bit weird when Stafford returned from the opening coin toss and put on not a helmet, but an earpiece. Standing awkwardly on the sideline, you could sense a discomfort that had nothing to do with the fractured bones in his back that sidelined him for the first time in nearly nine years.

Unfortunately for Stafford, he needs to get used to that uncomfortable feeling for a while. Because, if the Lions are smart, Stafford will not see the field again in 2019.

For the second consecutive season, Stafford has broken small bones in his back. And even if the injury is not quite the same one that he played through last season – and even though NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Stafford could be back on the field as soon as next week – the Lions need to think long and hard before they put him under center again.

There is no question that the goal of coach Matt Patricia has to be to win every game. Not just for his future, but because — the Miami Dolphins tank-a-thon aside — winning is always better than losing.

But there’s a bigger picture to think about. Something more important than beating Dallas next Sunday or Washington the one after that.

Stafford is the unquestioned most important player on the Lions. He’s the most important athlete in Detroit. Period. And he’s going to stay that way for a long time.

Before Stafford’s injury, he was on pace for the best and most efficient season of his career. If the Lions hope to compete for a Super Bowl in the next decade, riding Stafford’s arm is the only way it’s going to happen.

Which is why the Lions can’t sacrifice the future for one or two more wins in a season that is going nowhere. After the Lions’ 20-13 loss to Chicago, they sit at a woeful 3-5-1. To make the playoffs, they would have to win their remaining seven games, and honestly, even that would likely not be enough in a stacked NFC.

The Lions have a duty to the future of the franchise (both in the literal and figurative sense of the word) to look past this Sunday and to 2020 and beyond.

Backs are tricky — just ask Tony Romo, who is leading CBS’s broadcast team instead of the Dallas Cowboys right now because of a series of back injuries. And even if doctors say that it’s just a pain management issue, or that Stafford can’t make things worse by playing, the Lions need to be as cautious as possible.

Had this been Stafford’s first back injury, and if the Lions still had a heartbeat’s chance of making the playoffs, then, sure, maybe you consider throwing him back out there. But this is Stafford’s second back injury this season, and the second straight year he’s literally broken his back trying to carry this team to respectability.

For as disappointing as the 2019 season has been, and as hard as it is to see right now, the Lions are not that far away from being an honest-to-gosh competitor in the NFC. The team will have a decent amount of cap space again, what looks to be another potential top-10 draft pick, and with a few tweaks to the coaching staff (looking at you Paul Pasqualoni), it isn’t hard to see how the bounces could go the Lions’ way in 2020.

But none of that will happen if Stafford isn’t completely healthy and if the team has to hold its breath every time he takes a hard hit because they never let his back completely heal.

That’s why the Lions should shut Stafford down for his own good — and the team’s.

And who knows, maybe after a couple of weeks, Stafford won’t look so awkward on the sideline anymore.