Matthew Stafford didn't break any ribs -- that's the good news. The X-rays after he was leveled by Packers DT Kenny Clark in Sunday's loss to the Packers came back negative, Darrell Bevell said Monday.
But Stafford isn't out of the woods. He suffered a rib cartilage injury, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, and the Lions aren't 'overly optimistic' about his chances of playing Sunday versus the Titans.
Of course, Stafford being Stafford, the Lions aren't ruling him out.
"You guys know how tough Matthew is," Bevell said Monday. "This will be a deal where we’ll take it until the end of the week. He’s a little bit better this afternoon than he was this morning, so we’ll see how it goes and how he can progress."
Stafford was in an 'unbelievable amount of pain' after Sunday's game. As a couple teammates noted, you knew the injury was bad when it forced him to the sidelines.
"We know 9 is a warrior, man," said Taylor Decker. "He'll battle through a lot, he’ll push through a lot of pain, so you know if he can’t go it’s really because he can’t."
Stafford, 32, played through broken bones in his back in 2018, then missed the final eight games of 2019 due to the same injury. His future in Detroit isn't clear beyond this season.
If the Lions want to protect Stafford's trade value, they might decide to shut him down for the rest of the year. Then again, it might be in their best interest to prove that he's healthy enough to play.
Bevell said the decision this Sunday will come down to two factors: Stafford's effectiveness and his health.
"We’re going to use all the resources that we have at our disposal, which is the athletic training staff, the doctors, and then obviously he’ll have a big say in how he’s feeling," said Bevell. "We’ll look at the test with our eyes, we’ll see how he’s performing.
"But it’ll basically be performance-based and (whether) he’s going to be able to function at a high enough level, one, to perform well, and two, to be able to protect himself."