The Detroit Lions’ injury woes continue to mount as they prepare to travel to Kansas City for a Week 6 battle with the Chiefs on “Sunday Night Football.” On Saturday, the Lions announced that they have downgraded three players’ game statuses to OUT—offensive tackle Taylor Decker (shoulder), offensive tackle Giovanni Manu (knee), and defensive back Avonte Maddox (hamstring)—as they are not healthy enough to play in this weekend’s game. After ruling out running back Sione Vaki (groin), linebacker Zach Cunningham (hamstring), and cornerback Terrion Arnold (shoulder) on Friday, the Lions are headed to Kansas City with six players not available to them.
Decker has been dealing with a shoulder injury for the majority of the season, and ahead of the Lions game in Cincinnati, the Lions made a decision to allow him to rest instead of playing through the pain. Detroit feels like this extra rest will allow Decker to heal properly and will allow him to play in better health for the remainder of the season.
With Decker out last week, the Lions turned to Manu to start at left tackle, but Manu popped up on the injury report on Thursday with a knee injury, and like most mid-week additions to the injury report, he was not able to recover in time to play. With Decker and Manu both ruled out, the Lions will likely turn to Dan Skipper—who was signed to the active roster this week—to start at left tackle. Skipper spent all of last season as the Lions’ OT3 and even started two games for an injured Decker. This season, he’s primarily been on the practice squad working through an injury, but he is now fully healthy and ready to contribute. Look for practice squad offensive tackle Devin Cochran to be elevated for this game, like he was last week against the Bengals.
Maddox was also a mid-week addition to the injury report and also could not heal up in time to play. This season, Maddox has been the Lions’ third safety and backup nickel, and was expected to be in line to start at nickel this week with Amik Robertson pushing outside to cover for the injured Arnold. The Lions will almost certainly need to elevate another defensive back for this game, meaning one of Tre Flowers, Erick Hallett, Nick Whiteside, or newly-signed veteran nickel Arthur Maulet should get the Lions’ other roster elevation for this game.
The Lions still have three more players listed as questionable for this game, wide receiver Kalif Raymond, as well as starting safeties Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph. Branch and Joseph are expected to be game-time decisions, but the fact that they were not ruled out is a positive sign that they’ll have a chance to play against the Chiefs.
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