It keeps looking like Lions defensive end Ezekiel Ansah is about to play, and he keeps not playing.
And Lions coach Matt Patricia is definitely tired of talking about it.
The Lions franchise player hasn’t suited up for a game since a shoulder injury in the opener, though he’s had weeks (including last week) when he practiced and appeared ready to go. But he was inactive last week against the Dolphins.
So Patricia started channeling his old mentor Bill Belichick when asked when he knew when Ansah wasn’t going to be available.
“I don’t know. Whatever we listed last week on the injury report, he replied, via Carlos Monarrez, of the Detroit Free Press.
“Here’s what I’m going to say about the Ziggy conversation, just so I can answer all those questions up front,” Patricia said. “Ziggy’s doing everything he can day by day to get out there and play. And when he’s ready to go he’s certainly, he’s someone that we think can help us win.
“And that’s the bottom line, is we’re trying to win. So when we have anybody on our team that will help us win we’ll put them out on the field.”
Further attempts to clarify a confusing situation were cut off.
“That’s all I’m going to mention about that,” Patricia said. “The rest of it is we document the injury report every single week. We update those regularly and we try to put those guys out on the field every single day and see what they can get done. So I don’t really understand what the question is.”
One last attempt was met with: “Nope, that’s it. I’m good there.”
Clearly, Patricia is onto Seattle. But it’s still unclear when Ansah will return.
He said last week he thought he was “pretty good,” and that it would be a “coach’s decision” if he played.
Apparently it wasn’t, and the Lions spent another million dollars to watch him not play.