During their mini-bye, the Detroit Lions coaches clearly spent time adjusting their gameday roster lineup. The cornerback group was shuffled with Roger McCreary starting, and Ennis Rakestraw getting some critical snaps. The running back distribution saw Sione Vaki steal a lot more snaps and carries from Jahmyr Gibbs. At linebacker, Trevor Nowaske entered the starting lineup and was very effective.
I had been calling for spreading out the snap counts more, and it was gracious of Dan Campbell to recognize my important contributions after the game…
The final result was a totally healthy game and a nice 31-24 win over the Jets. It’s not often you get to enjoy a Sunday like this…
Here is the short postgame injury report, which has no significant concerns.
🔴Bad news or high concern
🟡Uncertain or moderately concerning
🟢Good news or low concern
🟢 DJ Reed, CB (3Q 8:02) - Concussion evaluation
Reed was holding his head after this hit, which prompted the medical spotter to call down for a concussion evaluation. He passed the evaluation and returned to the game.
While there is always a chance for delayed concussion symptoms, that is unlikely. A stinger is also a possibility with how his neck was stretched to the side, but there were no signs of that on video.
NOTABLES
🟢 Ennis Rakestraw (CB) was active for the first time this season and got a nice breakup of Garrett Wilson early in the game…
In his smattering of snaps throughout the game, Rakestraw was very sticky and looked like the Lions’ best CB, including on this critical play at the end of the game…
Hopefully, we see Rakestraw continue his excellent play with increased snaps vs the Panthers next Sunday Night.
🟢 Tate Ratledge (RG) was on the injury report all week with an elbow. He played with a left elbow brace and looked just fine.
🔴 Thomas Harper (S) was placed on IR the day before the game. There were signs portending this outcome when he was seen in a boot on Wednesday this week, six days after the last game.
Harper had expressed optimism that this wasn’t a long-term injury, which is just another example of how you can’t really take what players say to the media at face value. It’s not the fault of the reporters, as the players are instructed by the Lions to stay quiet about their injuries.
While Harper is eligible to return in Week 8, this could be a longer-term issue if this is a recurrence of his ankle injury from preseason.
Harper has been added to my Lions IR/PUP/NFI Tracker.
🔴 Ben Bartch (OG) was on IR-watch this weekend, and did not go on IR. This is of course good news for his foot injury, but significant concerns remain. It’s uncertain if the current injury is related to his Lisfranc foot injury from last year that required surgery. If so, this is a problem that could continue to pop up throughout this season.
🔴 Avonte Maddox (S) was placed on IR earlier this week due to left foot surgery. While he’s almost certainly out for the season, it’s nice to see him looking good in post-op…
No major injury setbacks was a win in itself.