The Detroit Lions somehow fell to last place in the NFC North during their bye. The good news is that the team is very healthy, and they will have Brian Branch and Cade Mays returning this Sunday to help them claw back up the standings.
Dan Campbell had a press conference today. Here are some of his quotes along with my analysis. Mixed in will be thoughts on Brian Branch’s stem cell treatment and an update on Jalen Hurts’ blood clot.
🔴Bad news or high concern
🟡Uncertain or moderately concerning
🟢Good news or low concern
🟢Brian Branch Returns from Right Achilles
“That would be asking a lot to say he’s going to play 70 plays. We feel like he can handle quite a bit here.”
Campbell confirms that Branch is ready to play this Sunday. How much will he play? The Lions historically don’t ease players back into the lineup. Thus, expect Branch to get a full workload in his first game back. Cramps will be something to keep an eye on given Branch’s propensity for that issue in the past.
🟡Brian Branch Stem Cell Treatment for Achilles
The recent Dan Pompei article on Brian Branch revealed stem cell treatment…
I’m dubious at to whether stem cell treatment has any positive effect for an Achilles recovery. For Branch, it did not appear to shorten his recovery time at all. He will be returning at just under 11 months (Dec 4 ➡️ Oct 25), which is a fairly typical timeline for an Achilles.
🟢Cade Mays Returns from Wrist Fracture
“Do we work he and Juice in and out? The center position is a little different than a guard. That’s somebody who is constantly touching the football.
There’s definitely an argument to keep [Juice Scruggs] rolling. He’s playing good football.”
Reading between the lines here suggests that Mays will return full-time to the starting lineup on Sunday. Since he is the long-term future at the position with a 3-year contract, it makes sense to get Mays in there as soon as possible even if there are some short-term lumps along the way. While Scruggs may be playing well, he is in the final year of his rookie deal, and thus may not be with the team next year.
🔴Jalen Hurts Bilateral Pulmonary Embolisms
The concern with Hurts’ superficial blood clot (SVT) was that it would turn into a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and then subsequently a pulmonary embolism (PE). It’s the PE that is the serious medical concern here. Unfortunately for Hurts, this bad-case scenario happened.
For more on SVT, DVT, and PE, read my initial analysis from two days ago…
Now that Hurts has bilateral PEs, he will be placed on anticoagulants for a minimum of three months, during which time he can’t play football. A PE can be a life-threatening issue, so Hurts will be closely monitored throughout.
No Sleep Till Brooklyn?
With all due respect to Tom Pelissero, who presumably directly reports what he is told, this report is ridiculous. There is no way that doctors told Hurts not to sleep. If his medical situation required such intensive monitoring, he would have been admitted to the hospital with round-the-clock care, not dodging 300-pound humans trying to crush him. There is likely some miscommunication, misinterpretation, or misreporting of what the doctors told him.
It’s possible that the doctors told him that lack of movement for long periods can increase the risk of developing blood clots (true), and this was misinterpreted as an order to not lie down at all.
Sleep is important for body recovery and healing, so it would be extremely unusual in any medical circumstance to advise a patient not to go to sleep (I’ve never seen it). If the situation is that critical, the patient would be admitted to the hospital for professional observation and monitoring.
Concussions are a situation where doctors may have in the past advised people to stay awake to monitor for worsening symptoms. But this is highly controversial and not advised anymore, as it is better for the brain to rest and have someone else check in regularly on the concussed patient.