Lions safety Louis Delmas has battled knee injuries for a long time now and didn’t practice with the team at all during their offseason workouts, which made it something of a surprise that he avoided the PUP list at the start of camp.
It also makes it less of a surprise that he’s been held out of practice the last couple of days. Delmas hasn’t practiced since taking part in some team drills on Tuesday and defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham had no timetable for when Delmas would be back on the field, but coach Jim Schwartz said that the safety’s absence from practice shouldn’t be considered a setback.
“We are just trying to be proactive,” Schwartz said, via Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. “We are trying to give him days off and trying to keep him from practicing when he’s sore. He was still a little sore and had some swelling there.”
With some players, proactive approaches in training camp aren’t worth a mention. For a player with Delmas’ history, however, one day of practice leading to three days off (the Lions didn’t practice Wednesday) is another sign that you can’t just write his name in the lineup and put worries aside.
The Lions were also without safety Amari Spievey and cornerbacks Darius Slay, Chris Greenwood and Jonte Green at Friday’s practice because of injuries, leaving the team without much too work with in the secondary. While that’s a familiar feeling for the Lions, it’s surely one they hope to avoid once the regular season arrives.