Cade Mays Wrist Fracture Analysis
Plus latest on Isiah Pacheco, Juice Scruggs, Aidan Keanaaina, & Teddy Bridgewater
Today’s Dan Campbell press conference delivered some bad injury news for the Detroit Lions. Here is the full breakdown of Cade Mays’ wrist fracture, Isiah Pacheco’s MCL, and all the other Lions’ injury updates. Included are some of Dan Campbell’s quotes along with my analysis.
Cade Mays, C - Wrist fracture
In protection. Defensive lineman made an arm-over move and chopped at it. One of those freak things.
This will be a while. I’m not going to give you a timeline. He’ll be ready for the playoffs.
Last year, Khalil Dorsey had a wrist injury with a return-to-play in 8 weeks. If Mays has the same timeline, he’d be back for Week 4 - October 4 vs the Panthers.
What to make of Campbell’s initial statement? Reading his body language, I get the sense that he was just irritated talking about injuries all the time and having to give estimated timelines. Recall earlier in camp, he jokingly set Brian Branch’s timeline in “December”.
The wrist is a highly complex joint. Not only does it include 8 carpal (wrist) bones, but also the radius, ulna, and 5 metacarpals. Thus, there is a huge variety of fractures than can happen. We don’t know the exact fracture for Mays yet.
If Rapoport’s report is accurate that Mays broke a “small” bone, then that makes it more likely to be one of the carpal bones.
The scaphoid bone is one of the common wrist fractures. Recent cases of scaphoid fracture:
Jaxon Smith-Njigba returned in about 4 weeks in 2023.
Kayvon Thibodeaux returned in 7 weeks in 2024
The typical mechanism of a scaphoid fracture is falling onto an outstretched hand. That’s not what happened here with Mays though (chopped by an arm), which opens up the possibility he fractured a different bone.
Each specific wrist bone and type of fracture can have a different form of treatment and recovery. Surgery is a very likely possibility…
A fracture that affects the wrist joint can impact the joint function, and even lead to arthritic issues down the line. So residuals are possible, even after the fracture is fully healed.
Could Cade Mays go on IR?
Yes, it’s possible Mays goes on IR at the 53-man cutdown date on August 30. He can’t go on IR prior, as that would make him ineligible to return during the season. All NFL teams get to place two players on IR-designated-to-return at the cutdown date who don’t count towards the 53-man roster.
If Mays goes on IR, he can’t play until Week 5 - October 11 vs the Cardinals.
For the current updated Detroit Lions IR list, visit my Lions IR/PUP/NFI Tracker at the top of my home page.
Who is playing center until Mays comes back?
Here are the top contenders:
Seth McLaughlin - According to Jeff Risdon who was at Lions practice today, McLaughlin was taking 1st-team reps. Results were mixed according to Jeff’s observations. That’s not a big surprise as McLaughlin carried a moderate medical concern level (6/10) due to lack of any game action since a ruptured Achilles in 2024.
Juice Scruggs - Scruggs has a moderate medical concern level (5/10) due to a history of a fractured spine as well as a 2024 foot injury. The possibility of Scruggs as a starter made one reader very happy…
Speaking of Scruggs…
Juice Scruggs, OG/C - Soft tissue injury
Dealing with a soft tissue. A few more days before he’s back. But certainly Juice is a candidate [to play center].
No details of the specific injury here but Campbell reached for his groin area while describing Scruggs’s injury. Maybe he just had an itch. Scruggs may be out now, but it sounds like the injury is short-term.
Isiah Pacheco, RB - MCL sprain
He’s got a little MCL. But we feel good about that. We feel pretty good about him being ready to go, certainly, when the season gets here.
The good news with an MCL is it generally heals very well. It’s likely that Pacheco has a grade 1 (mild) or grade 2 (moderate) MCL. A grade 1 MCL carries about a 1-2 week recovery while a grade 2 MCL carries a 2-4 week recovery time. This being preseason, there is no reason to push things, even with a very mild MCL.
The concern for Pacheco specifically is he had a right knee MCL last year (the current injury side is unknown). He is building up a lot of injury residuals which is why my medical concern level for Pacheco upon signing was a moderate 6/10.
MCL sprains are almost always caused by direct contact to the knee. With the Lions starting up full-contact practices in the past week, these are the kinds of injuries that can pop up.
Pacheco’s likely contact injury and Mays’ definite contact injury are some of the risks of running full-contact, live practices. This reignites the debate of the intensity of Detroit Lions’ practices.
For my earlier analysis of the pros/cons of training camp intensity, visit Detroit Lions training camp injuries: Is “live” tackling worth the risk?
Aidan Keanaaina, DT - Placed on IR
