Returning from their bye week, the Detroit Lions held a short practice on Monday to get their feet wet again in preparation for the Dallas Cowboys.
“Really getting the guys moving again,” coach Dan Campbell said. “It was back to the fundamentals and then getting the body sparked again.”
With the return to practice came a bit of good injury news. All-Pro center Frank Ragnow and starting safety Brian Branch were both participating in the early-week practice.
“They were both out there practicing today,” Campbell said. “As of right now, they look good.”
Ragnow suffered a partially-torn pectoral muscle in the team’s Week 3 game against the Arizona Cardinals. While he was able to finish the game, he did not practice or play in Week 4. Detroit replaced Ragnow by sliding left guard Graham Glasgow to center and playing Kayode Awosika at guard. The replacement plan worked well, as Detroit racked up 42 points against the Seattle Seahawks in a winning effort.
Branch missed the Seahawks game with an undisclosed illness. He was also returning from a concussion that knocked him out of the team’s Week 3 game, but Campbell confirmed that the illness had nothing to do with the concussion recovery.
“No, he passed the protocol,” Campbell said. “He’s been sick and so we don’t know what that is and it’s not worth it (to play him). I don’t know what it is, I know he’s sick so that’s what it was.”
Branch has been one of the bigger keys to Detroit’s improvement on defense. In three games played, Branch has been a force in the run game (22 tackles) and in coverage (team-leading seven passes defended). Him returning to face a dangerous Cowboys passing attack would be big.
The Lions aren’t due to give an injury report until Wednesday, so we won’t know practice details before then.
