Last week, Lions general manager Martin Mayhew said that he was looking forward to running back Jahvid Best getting full medical clearance after the concussion that ended his 2011 season.
It sounds like Mayhew is still waiting. He wasn’t as forthcoming with the media about Best’s status as he was last week, which made it a bit unclear whether or not Best is able to go full speed yet. He’s been in Detroit for the team’s workouts, but Mayhew only passed along second-hand information about his status.
“I saw (Best) in the meeting room, but I haven’t seen him working out,” Mayhew said, via Anwar Richardson of MLive.com. “From what I understand, he’s been doing everything, as far as conditioning and working out with everybody.”
With no timetable for Best’s return and Mikel Leshoure coming back from an Achilles injury, there’s been a lot of speculation that the Lions will be looking to add a running back next week. Mayhew threw a bit of fuel on that fire in comments relayed by Tim Twentyman of the Lions website.
“I think it’s a critical position. I think careers are shorter, obviously, but I think it’s a really important position on your football team. We felt that way and we drafted that way in the past.”
And it sounds like they will be drafting that way again in the near future.