The Detroit Lions have a bit of a conundrum on their hands when it comes to their left tackle position. Starter Taylor Decker is dealing with a shoulder injury, and it appears it’s going to be something he deals with in the foreseeable future. At first, the Lions opted to rest him during the week so that he would be feeling his best and ready to go on Sundays. However, last week against the Cincinnati Bengals, they decided that the plan wasn’t working how they wanted. Decker was not getting any better. He was actually starting each subsequent week further behind in his rehab than the one before.
“Every week, the recovery has been less and less,” coach Dan Campbell said. “He’s not been able to quite catch up—we feel like there’s diminishing returns each week. Man, it’s a little, ah. We just felt like we need to give this guy a little time, and I don’t know how long. But this is so we get him back. That’s what this is. Man, let’s get this thing to calm down, let’s get some strength back in the shoulder to where he feels good.”
The Lions face one of the toughest parts of their schedule in the next two weeks before their Week 8 bye: at the Kansas City Chiefs and home against the 4-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
While we obviously don’t have the medical information on Decker, nor do we know how much a week off has improved his situation, we can discuss the merits of risking any further injury vs. going another week with a backup left tackle.
And even if the Lions opt to rest Decker until the bye week, they’ve got some tough decisions on who to replace him with. Last week, the Lions opted to give Giovanni Manu his first career start, and it was a mixed bag for the developmental tackle. This week, they’ve already signed veteran Dan Skipper to the 53-man roster, suggesting he may be in the mix for the start this week (Note: Skipper was signed to the 53-man roster AFTER the recording of this podcast, but it doesn’t really impact our discussion much.)
Erik Schlitt and I debate what the Lions should do at left tackle at around the 18-minute mark of the show.
Here are some other questions we answer on this week’s Midweek Mailbag podcast.
- How will the Lions approach cornerback in the short and long term?
- Is Derrick Barnes the biggest key to the Lions’ week-to-week diversity on defense?
- Should Detroit be worried about an angry Kansas City Chiefs team?
- What is the best way to build a practice squad?
- Why is Mekhi Wingo a weekly healthy scratch?
- Is this team better than it was last year?
- Which rookie is off to a better start: Tyleik Williams or Tate Ratledge?
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