Week 5: Lions – Bengals Friday Injury Report with Game Designations

Last practice report of the week just came out, and both teams had some interesting movement on players in practice and what their game designations are.

Bengals

Friday: Looks like the Bengals had a couple of downgrades for Shemar Stewart and Charlie Jones, who both were LP yesterday, but did not practice today. Stewart is Out, Jones is Questionable for Sunday. The rest of the players on the report all had a Full Practice, but are listed with “Unspecified” on the official Injury page fed by the NFL system, which is an interesting designation and likely against league rules. Regardless, I expect them to all be available.

Thursday: A few surprises, with Noah Fant improving to a Full Participant, Stewart and Jones improving to LPs, which means that all are trending toward playing this week. Two vets were given rest days, but backup C Matt Lee appears to have left practice with a knee injury. That could tax and already thin OL depth for the Bengals and is something to keep an eye on.

The three players listed were TE Noah Fant (LP) and Shemar Stewart (both holdovers from last week) along with WR Charlie Jones, who was hurt in the Bengals last game. Not much to analyze, Fant is likely the closest to playing, which would give their offense a boost, but Burrow is unavailable on IR, so it may not matter.

Lions

Friday: As expected, Vaki, Cunningham and McNeil (despite the 50/50 remark form Campbell this morning) are all Out for the game. Unfortunately, the Lions lone downgrade was Khalil Dorsey, who went through a Full Practice yesterday coming back form a concussion, but did not practice today. That impacts the Lions depth, as Arnold, even with a Full Practice, is coming off a shoulder issue and Joseph is questionable with that knee. Decker is also Questionable, but this will make the fourth straight week he has missed every practice and been listed as Questionable, so I expect him to play and play well.

Thursday: Big changes was DJ Reed moving to IR and Terrion Arnold being a Full Participant, while Khalil Dorsey also improved form his concussion to a LP, keeping him on track to play. The other four DNPs were still DNP, which for Decker is nothing new, but troublesome for Vaki and Cunningham. Joseph will need to improve tomorrow to at least a LP in order to trend toward getting in there against the Bengals.

Wednesday: The report was pretty much as expected, with everyone that was injured in the Browns win (Reed, Arnold, Cunningham and Joseph) showing up in some capacity. Holdovers (Vaki and Decker) were also listed, but that was to be expected. Alim McNeil returned to practice form his knee injury and was a Limited Participant, indicating his 21-day return to lay window may very well not need the entire time. The only surprise was Khalil Dorsey, who suffered a concussion at some point between Sunday and today.