The Detroit Lions will have their first division game of the season this Sunday, hosting the 4-2 Green Bay Packers at Ford Field for a 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff.
Detroit got a head start on the week, moving their first practice from Wednesday to Tuesday, a common practice from this regime out of a bye week. According to coach Dan Campbell, it also served the purpose of giving returning players Brian Branch and Cade Mays a big load of work, then giving them—and the rest of the team—Wednesday off to let
their bodies recover.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’re practicing tomorrow and not Wednesday,” Campbell said Monday. “So, we can push some of these guys a little bit knowing they’re going into a day off. I think that’ll help a little bit.”
And if Tuesday’s practice is any indication, the Lions will be entering this pivotal Week 7 matchup with a good bill of health. Not only will Branch and Mays make their 2026 debuts for the team, but Detroit’s Tuesday practice had every single player on the active roster practicing. That includes the return of reserve cornerback Rock Ya-Sin, who had missed last game with a hamstring injury.
Now, it wouldn’t be completely accurate to call the Lions “fully healthy” at this point in the season. Just last week, the Lions placed three players—WR Tom Kennedy, G Ben Bartch, and LB Devin White—on injured reserve, with Kennedy out for the season and White out for at least a couple of months with a broken forearm. Beyond that, the Lions still have Isiah Pacheco, Kendrick Law, Avonte Maddox, and Thomas Harper on injured reserve as well.
Still, thus far, the Lions’ injury luck has certainly been better than in previous years, and they’ll need all hands on deck for a surging Packers team this week and an undefeated Vikings squad waiting in Week 8.
We’ll have a more thorough injury report on Wednesday, when the Lions are expected to drop their first official practice designations of the week.
