DETROIT – The Detroit Lions have been hit hard by injuries this season, and head coach Dan Campbell provided an update on Jahmyr Gibbs, Brian Branch, David Montgomery, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, and James Mitchell.
David Montgomery injury
It sounds like the Lions are going to be without their starting running back for a few weeks. On Monday, Campbell revealed Montgomery has an issue with the cartilage in his ribs.
“He’s got a little something in there, the cartilage, and so he’s probably going to be down for a little bit here,” Campbell said. “I don’t know how long. That’ll just be really how long it takes for this to -- at his position that’s not an easy thing to deal with. We’ll just take it as it comes, but I think there’s a chance we won’t have him for a little bit.”
Campbell doesn’t know whether Montgomery will be placed on injured reserve.
“I don’t know, to be honest with you,” Campbell said. “I have no idea. I really don’t at this point. We’ll see what he feels like tomorrow, see what he feels like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday -- then we’ll kind of see where we’re at.”
Click here to read our full breakdown of the Montgomery injury situation.
Jahmyr Gibbs injury
If the Lions are without Montgomery, it’s obviously even more important that their rookie running back returns to the field.
Campbell’s update on Gibbs was much more promising than the one for Montgomery.
“I feel a lot better about Gibbs this week,” Campbell said. “He ran really well on Saturday before we left and had another really good workout (Monday).”
Gibbs has missed the last two games with a hamstring injury. If he’s ready to come back, he’ll likely split carries with Craig Reynolds, who took over for Montgomery after the injury in Tampa Bay.
Brian Branch injury
Branch has been one of Detroit’s best players when he’s on the field, racking up 25 tackles, 21 solo tackles, and picking off a Patrick Mahomes pass to return it for a touchdown in the opener.
Unfortunately, the star rookie safety has missed the past two games with an ankle injury he suffered during the win at Green Bay. Campbell mentioned Branch very briefly while running through the injury updates on Monday, saying he “looked really good” on Monday.
“I think they’re trending the right way,” Campbell said about Branch and a few other players.
James Mitchell injury
One of the other players included in that group was Mitchell. The backup tight end was held out of Sunday’s game due to a hamstring injury.
Campbell said Mitchell looked good Monday and is trending in the right direction.
Halapoulivaati Vaitai injury
Vaitai was injured in the second game of the season against Seattle, and the Lions made him inactive the next two weeks. He’s been active the past two games, but hasn’t played.
Campbell said the Lions have been able to take it slow with Vaitai thanks to how well Graham Glasgow has played in the interim.
“Big V is just steadily coming back from this,” Campbell said. “He’s kind of been on reserve. He was better this week than last week, but we just want to make sure he’s 100% ready to go, and then we’ll take it from there.”
Another factor to keep an eye on in Vaitai’s recovery: Jonah Jackson was inactive Sunday due to an ankle injury. Even if the Lions feel comfortable with Glasgow starting at one of the guard spots, could Vaitai return to push Kayode Awosika into a reserve role?
“It’s just about: We want to make sure that he’s 100% comfortable with his own abilities with his knee coming back,” Campbell said of Vaitai. “He was much better this week than last week, so we would only anticipate him getting better and being almost back to 100%.”