This offseason, the Detroit Lions signed Isiah Pacheco to contend for the team’s RB2 spot after trading David Montgomery to the Houston Texans. Unfortunately, Pacheco dealt with a MCL injury in training camp and while rehabbing, he suffered a more serious back injury that required surgery. The latest we heard was that it was a 12-week injury and Pacheco could return by December. On Friday, coach Dan Campbell offered an update.
“He’s progressing well,” Campbell said. “Yeah, I do think there’s a chance
we could get him back in late December, mid-December maybe. There’s a chance here.”
Campbell praised the work Pacheco has been putting in for rehab.
“He’s put a tremendous amount of work in, and he’s doing pretty good,” Campbell said. “…Pacheco is—you go back there, and he’s ready to go, man. It’s just a matter of letting it continue to heal, but he’s doing a good job.”
Campbell also provided an update on Kerby Joseph, who returned to practice this week. Campbell noted that Joseph has responded well to the work in practice, but that they haven’t started to work him into team drills yet.
“He’s done a good job,” Campbell said. “It’s good so far. Now there again, we haven’t taken any team reps. It’s all been individual and group. But he’s handled that well.”
The plan is to progress him slowly, get him some after-practice cardio that he’s not getting in practice, and work him into more team drills next week. Campbell didn’t outright say it, but the heavy implication is that Joseph will be out for this week against the Vikings.
Joseph was wearing a compression sleeve on Thursday after not wearing one on Wednesday, but Campbell noted not to read into that.
“Any way you can reduce any swelling that could be or minimize it, you’re always going to do that with anything: elbow, shoulder, people coming of an injury,” Campbell said. “So that’s not—Like i said, we’re in the infant stage of this. It’s been positive to this date. So that’s the best way to say that.”
Short updates on LB Devin White, S Thomas Harper
In the middle of his update on Pacheco, Campbell gave an unprompted update on linebacker Devin White, who suffered a broken forearm three weeks ago that is believed to have needed surgery. White was in the locker room this week without anything protective on his arm, and Campbell noted he’s progressing well.
“Devin White’s doing pretty good, too,” Campbell said.
White must miss three more games before he’s eligible to return to practice, meaning the earliest he could play is Week 11 vs. the Buccaneers.
Campbell was also asked about reserve safety Thomas Harper, who landed on injured reserve after suffering an ankle injury against the Buffalo Bills in Week 2. Harper is now eligible to return to practice, and Campbell indicated he’s close to healthy enough to play.
“He’s doing pretty good,” Campbell said. “If we need him or (he was) on call, I think he’s close to being ready to go.”
Unfortunately for Harper, it sounds like the Lions may put his return on hold a bit. Campbell seemed to indicate that they are happy with the current status of the safety room—with Brian Branch’s return to the lineup last week and Kerby Joseph’s return to practice this week, along with Chuck Clark and Keith Abney filling out the room.
If the Lions chose to return him to practice, they’d only have three weeks to either place him on the 53-man roster or place him on injured reserve. Campbell indicated they don’t want to start that clock yet, because they could hit the end of that 21-day period and still not need him on the roster.
“It’s just a matter of you got who you’ve got, and (if) you start that (evaluation) clock and then you keep going here a little bit and you don’t need him, then you’ve got to IR him or you’ve got to—so we’re just kind of playing it safe. But he’s physically doing well,” Campbell said.
