Injured Lions Lineman Undergoes Surgery Further Clouding Future

Injury news for the Detroit Lions hasn’t been great to start a new season, and yet another piece of bad news came for the team on Wednesday, September 14.

While Halapoulivaati Vaitai was lost last week, it quickly has become clear that rest will not be good enough for the injury. Dan Campbell confirmed that Vaitai had back surgery this week on the injury.

Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com was at the press conference and tweeted an update about the news.

“Vaitai had back surgery this week. Dan Campbell not ruling him out for season yet,” Twentyman tweeted.

While Vaitai could still return, the recovery from back surgery may indeed take a while. It’s tough to imagine this not being a long-term injury the Lions will have to deal with the rest of the season.

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Vaitai Injury Was Called Significant By Ian Rapoport

After going on IR last week, Vaitai could return after Week 4, but at this point, that might not be possible for the team given the injury he is dealing with.

As NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport tweeted on Tuesday, September 6, the team is going to have to evaluate Vaitai further at that point to determine if he can even return in 2022.

“The Lions recently placed starting guard placed Halapoulivaati Vaitai on Injured Reserve. He is out the first four games and the team will determine at that point if he’s able to return at all this season. A potentially significant blow to their OL,” Rapoport tweeted.

As Rapoport says, that would be a big blow to Detroit’s depth up front on offense. With Vaitai, the Lions had the makings of a top-five offensive line in the league. Without him, the team could still be alright, but the margin for error would be very slim indeed.

Another injury and the Lions would be facing a situation almost identical to 2021, when multiple starters were out early in the year. Hopes were much higher for a healthier 2022.

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Vaitai’s Status for Lions Firmly up in the Air

With this news, it isn’t hard to see that Vaitai’s future with the team is firmly up in the air.

Last week, the Lions played guard Logan Stenberg in Vaitai’s place, and while the youngster got off to a rocky start with a few false start penalties, he managed to be solid and not look overmatched most of the day.

PFF didn’t love Stenberg’s debut, giving him a 0.0 grade in terms of pass blocking, but in time, he can continue to learn on the job and come along.

Vaitai, on the other hand, already was seen as having one of the most bloated contracts on the Lions. He needed a healthy 2022 season to perhaps justify sticking around, so with this news, it’s more than possible that Vaitai could be living on borrowed time with the team.

Whether he can come back this year or not remains to be seen, but at the very least, this surgery complicates matters in a big way.

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