List of injured players the Lions could realistically get back ahead of Vikings matchup, who is eligible?
These guys could be on their way back
The Detroit Lions’ bye week is over. They’ll be back on the field Tuesday for their first practice of the week. Now, the big question is: who can the team get back from injury this week? Who is eligible to return from injured reserve, and who do we know is coming back? Here’s a list:
Malcolm Rodriguez’s 21-day window is expected to open this week
“We’re hoping after the bye we can start rolling him out there a little bit, get him going.”
That was Lions head coach Dan Campbell talking about Rodriguez in Week 6. We’ll likely get an update on Rodriguez as early as Monday. Now, if he does come back to practice this week, you can probably expect that he’ll have a similar return process as Alim McNeill, where he practices a couple of weeks before he makes his on-field return. We’ll see where that goes.
Terrion Arnold could play against the Vikings on Sunday
After Arnold was injured against the Bengals, the initial report was that he would be out for a “long time.” Then a second opinion changed all of that. Anrold returned to practice ahead of the Lions Week 7 game with the Bucs, but didn’t play.
Campbell ruled him out early that week, but said he’d keep practicing. It’s been two weeks of healing now. We’ll see what his practice schedule looks like ahead of the Vikings.
Kerby Joseph could return against the Vikings, too
“Yeah, I mean that could come down this afternoon, it could be tomorrow. I mean, we’ll see. He hasn’t practiced. We’ll reassess. I know he’s doing a lot better. We just want to be smart with it and see where he’s at. But he is feeling better, he’s getting better. But I don’t see him practicing today.”
That was Campbell, the Saturday before the Lions’ matchup with the Bucs. There was a chance he could have played in that game, but the Lions wanted to be smart with it. That’s two weeks of no practicing and two weeks of healing. You have to feel good about that one.
Marcus Davenport is eligible to return
His four mandatory weeks on the IR have been up for a couple of weeks now. When Campbell was asked about him on Oct. 14, he said he didn’t expect to get Davenport back before the bye. That didn’t happen as we know. Now we’ll see if he’s ready to go this week.
Daniel Thomas is eligible to return
The Lions seem to like what they were getting out of Thomas on special teams before he broke his forearm in Week 3. He tried to play through it in Week 4, but it didn’t work out. He was placed on IR and is now eligible to return. We’ll see if he actually does.
Josh Pachal is still eligible to return
Paschal has been eligible for about a month now, but it just hasn’t happened. Campbell has said on every single update that he’s getting better, so there is that. Again, it’s a “we’ll see” type of thing.
Not quite yet: D.J. Reed
Reed has one more week before he’s eligible to return. So keep an eye on this one after the Lions play the Vikings. Maybe he’s back for the Commanders matchup.
