Pride of Detroit
Lions HC Dan Campbell provided injury updates on Marcus Davenport, Sam LaPorta, Derrick Barnes, Alim McNeill and others. We break it all down here.
Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell addressed the media on Monday afternoon and provided updates on several of the team's injured players.
Injured during the Lions win over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 3, Barnes exited the game in the first half and was ruled out shortly after halftime. He required a cart to exit the field and the initial concerns were that his injury could be significant. On Monday, Campbell confirmed, that Barnes will require a lot of time to recover.
“Barnes is going to be down a significant amount of time,” Campbell said.
How long he will need to recover is still being determined, as the team is currently getting multiple opinions on his knee injury to get a full assessment. At this time, he could be a candidate for injured reserve, but the Lions will wait until they get a full report from the doctor visits.
“We’re not going to know that,” Campbell on Barnes being placed on injured reserve. “We’re still getting second opinions on that. What we know right now is he’s going to be down a little while. We know that, and then it’s just a matter of these opinions keep coming back, how long is that going to be? It’s the knee, so is he going to need something done other than one of the ligaments? Can it scar in? Can these ligaments scar in and everything will be good, it just needs time? We know he’s going to need to be down for a little while while the knee heals, and then once it heals, is it going to need surgery?”
Barnes is one of the biggest losses for the Lions because he was playing at a high level and does not have a direct one-for-one replacement. The Lions have six other linebackers on the roster but none have the range and skill set to contribute at the SAM position.
When Barnes exited, he was replaced by Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Ben Niemann took snaps at SAM, but neither is best suited for the role. The Lions have unsuccessfully tried James Houston in the role, and Trevor Nowaske played a similar role in college but he’s been a healthy scratch the first three weeks of the season. Practice squaders Isaac Ukwu and Mitchell Agude found some success in the SAM role during training camp and could be options for promotion.
“We gotta lot of depth,” Campbell continued. “We trust every one of those players in there. Look, it’s going to hurt to lose Barnes. Barnes was playing at a high level, but if it’s gotta happen in any room, the linebacker room gives you faith, because all those guys can play and we have a ton of faith in those guys.”
One option that could have been in...
