Lions head coach Dan Campbell said that he’s not discouraged by the team’s 1-4 start, but others may not feel the same way and some reason to believe that things are on the right track wouldn’t be a bad development in Detroit.
One reason could be the debut of wide receiver Jameson Williams. The first-round pick is still working his way back from the torn ACL he suffered at Alabama and the team has resisted putting any kind of timeline on when he might be cleared to join the lineup.
Campbell said Wednesday that nothing about the team’s situation, including injuries to other receivers, will lead the Lions to try to speed up the process. He did say that the team believes Williams has made real strides in recent weeks.
“I would say this: We really felt like he’s turned the corner over the last month,” Campbell said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “We feel like he’s really coming on. And so I would say we’re pretty optimistic he’s going to play this year. Now, that being said, the injuries are not going to have any bearing on when he plays. We’re not going to let that affect us. When he’s ready, we’ll get him up and ready to go but we don’t want to press that just because we have a number of injuries in the receiver room.”
DJ Chark and Amon-Ra St. Brown both missed time before the Lions’ bye week and Campbell said Chark will remain out of practice to kick off this week.
