The Lions are holding out hope that C.J. Gardner-Johnson returns this season after he suffered a torn pec in Detroit's Week 2 loss to the Seahawks.
Gardner-Johnson sustained an apparent shoulder injury on the Seahawks' opening drive and was able to finish out the game, but follow-up testing on Monday revealed the severity of the issue.
"He was able to play with it, but you could tell he was restricted. We got it checked out and we got the results last night, certainly ended up being bad news," Dan Campbell said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "Hate it for him. That’s tough. But look, we’ll see where this thing goes and there’s a chance he comes back this season."
A torn pec typically takes three to four months to heal. Anything longer than that would end Gardner-Johnson's season.
"And then listen, we got Tracy, man," said Campbell. "That’s why Tracy Walker’s here. There’s a reason we wanted to re-sign him. He's coming off an injury and man, it’s next man up. Here we go."
Walker tore his Achilles last September, but he's a proven starter in the NFL who was a defensive co-captain last season. He briefly filled in for Gardner-Johnson at safety in Week 2 and should slide seamlessly back into Aaron Glenn's defense. As he posted Monday on Twitter, "They said if you always stay ready you never got to get ready."
A six-year vet, Walker re-signed with the Lions on a three-year, $25 million deal after his first season under the new regime.
Elsewhere on the injury front, it sounds like the Lions expect to be without left tackle Taylor Decker (ankle) and cornerback Emmanuel Moseley (knee, hamstring) for another game.
While Campbell said "there’s hope" for Decker, who injured his ankle in the Lions' Week 1 win over the Chiefs, "I can’t say with a ton of confidence right now that I know we’ll have Decker back (this week)." And for Moseley, whose return from a torn ACL was delayed last week by a hamstring injury, Campbell said, "He’s another that I don’t feel great about it."
"So look, we may be thin this game (against the Falcons)," Campbell said. "We got hit. We've been pretty good to this point in the season and we got hit with the bug. We gotta weather this storm. It’s why we’ve got the guys that we have on this roster at these positions … That’s why they’re here."