Pride of Detroit
The Detroit Lions toned down practice a bit after a physical Monday practice. Most of the absences from Wednesday’s session were expected, but there were a couple of notable injury developments. Here’s the latest on every player.
No new definitive updates here, but it’s worth noting that it appeared Josh Paschal was getting work on the hill with a trainer during practice. When we last heard an update about his situation, coach Dan Campbell estimated an early September return to practice for Paschal, which could mean he gets activated from the Non-Football Injury list prior to cutdowns.
Campbell gave updates on the three players injured in Monday’s practice: Dominic Lovett, Jamarco Jones, and Pat O’Connor. The good news is that all three appeared to avoid major injury. The bad news is that all are expected to be out for at least a week. At tackle, both Mason Miller and Justin Herron had to pull double duty at right and left tackle, respectively, with the second and third teams. Meanwhile, Giovanni Manu and Penei Sewell were with the first team.
Vaki’s absence came as a surprise. Not only did he appear to finish Monday’s practice without an incident, but he told MLive that he was looking forward to playing in Friday’s preseason game and told our own Erik Schlitt that he was “feeling good” in a post-practice conversation.
“Everything’s good,” Vaki told Pride of Detroit after Monday’s practice. “I’m just happy to be back out here with the boys, man. Being able to watch it on film and being out there on the field are two different things, and man, you definitely need these on-field reps.”
That suggests Vaki’s absence may not be injury-related. We’ll see on Friday.
Brodric Martin has now missed two consecutive practices for unknown reasons. To help the Lions’ nose tackle depth, we saw some Chris Smith playing at that spot with the third team.
Patrick took part in individual drills before walking off the field on his own. I didn’t see what happened to him, and he was not escorted to the locker room by a team trainer. At first, I thought it may have been a bathroom break, but he did not return to practice. The team did not provide an update on his status.
Patrick’s absence during team drills gave a little more first-team opportunities to Kalif Raymond and Tom Kennedy —the large majority of which went to Raymond.
