Getty Da'Shawn Hand rides off after getting injured in Arizona in 2018.
The Detroit Lions set out with the goal of getting healthy over their bye week, and the good news is that dream seems to have been realized. As the team got back to work this week, only defensive linemen Mike Daniels and Damon Harrison were missing from practice.
Wednesday, Matt Patricia updated folks on the health of his team and admitted that things are certainly looking up since the last time he met with his team for a week of practice.
“We got pretty much everybody going out trying to do what they can do today,” Patricia told the media. “We got a little bit of extra time to progress here as the week goes, so we’re gong to try to take advantage of all that before we get to the game, and being it’s a night game, we have a little extra time. So we’ll use all of that.”
That means the rest of the team has a near clean bill of health this week. Names such as Darius Slay, Qunadre Diggs, Matthew Stafford, Da’Shawn Hand and T.J. Hockenson all will be doing various things to prepare at practice and many could be pain free. For the Lions, that is huge. Many of those players were dinged up in previous weeks, and for the team to keep them healthy ahead of some key divisional games is a must.
Mission accomplished in terms of getting most everybody back and ready to roll. Based on Patricia’s commentary, it seems that even Daniels could be a better bet to eventually suit up this week after the team gets him some rest, but that remains to be seen.
Hockenson Still Not out of the Woods
Even though Hockenson can be expected to test himself in practice, he will still have to prove he is right and ready before the game with physical work on the field as part of the concussion protocol. That’s why he will be on the field in likely a limited role until the team sees enough to eventually clear him. While that could happen this week given the elongated timeline, it’s not easy to tell how the body will respond, meaning the team will simply have to monitor the tight end’s progression.
Hockenson, folks might remember, took a scary fall a few weeks ago which turned out to be a potential concussion. While that outcome is certainly frustrating, it seemed likely Hockenson was lucky not to endure a worse injury after the spill.
For right now, he is progressing his way back and seems to be on a good track for the team
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Lions Preparing for Davante Adams
Last week, the Packers were without wide receiver Davante Adams in Dallas, but Patricia admitted he isn’t planning on Green Bay not having the elite wideout once again this week.
“I think for us knowing that it’s a long week and he didn’t participate last week, I would anticipate for us that he’s going to be be out there and he is going to play,” Patricia said. “We’ll push forward with that and talk about it if he doesn’t, but right now, go forward as if he is.”
Without Adams, the Packers still scored 34 points on the Cowboys and had a nice performance on the afternoon offensively. Their passing offense, however, left some things to be desired, meaning the return of Adams could be a huge variable for this game.
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