Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford practiced last week, at least on a limited basis, before watching Sunday’s game from the sidelines because of a back injury.
They’re not saying at the moment whether he’s practicing this week or not.
Via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Lions coach Matt Patricia said during a conference call Tuesday they’re still formulating their plan for the week.
“We’ll see as we go through the week,” Patricia said. “We’ll get to that here tomorrow and talk about all of that and we’ll go from there.”
The first question is obviously Stafford’s physical condition, after tests last Friday steered them toward sitting the veteran quarterback. But they also have to balance the need to prepare backup Jeff Driskel for Sunday’s game against the Cowboys.
Driskel got the backup share (i.e. few) reps in practice last week, before losing to the Bears in a surprise start.
“We’re always trying to do everything possible to make sure that all of our players are in safe positions, and certainly in practice we obviously can control a lot more,” Patricia said. “Certainly, we do that all the time with the guys that are in concussion protocol that can go out and practice. Guys that are injured, whether it is lower body, upper body, whatever it may be. We try to control all of those scenarios when we know if there’s something wrong.”
And something seems to be wrong with Stafford, after a streak of 136 straight starts was snapped last week.