Detroit Lions Training Camp Injury Report: Gibbs, Conklin Back

After a day off, the Detroit Lions were back on the field Thursday for Day 7 of training camp. It was a very hot and balmy day at Allen Park, and it forced a lot of players to either be limited or miss practice entirely. The Lions even offered the following update regarding players after practice:

“Several player absences/limited time related to the heat/cramping etc. Won’t have official updates on those.”

So as you see some of the unexpected absences, early departures or limited playing times of the players below, keep in mind some of them may not be injury related.

Return to practice:

• RB Jahmyr Gibbs (hold-in, back)
• TE Tyler Conklin (calf)
• G Ben Bartch (undisclosed)

Gibbs was back on the field with a helmet, going through walkthroughs with his teammates for the first time. But when the team broke for positional and team drills, he split from the group and worked with a trainer. He stayed on the field for the entire practice, but did no team work after walkthroughs.

Conklin officially came off the PUP list and did some walkthrough and individual drills on Thursday. He was not cleared for team drills yet, though. That left Jackson Meeks and Thomas Gordon to get most of the TE3-4 reps for the day.

After solely working with trainers for the past couple of days, Bartch was back on individual drills, but he has still yet to participate in any team drills this training camp. For someone expected to contend for the starting left guard job, he needs to get out there soon.

Out, but working with trainers:

• S Brian Branch (PUP, Achilles)

Branch spent a significant amount of time working with a trainer on Thursday. I would estimate he did about an hour of work, up from about the 15 minutes he did earlier in the week. He stayed on the field all day and hung out with his teammates, but he remains on PUP, with the last estimate on his return being late August, early September.

Appeared to be limited:

• LB Derrick Barnes (undisclosed)

Barnes appeared to be on a bit of a pitch count on Thursday, leaving Trevor Nowaske to get the majority of the first-team SAM linebacker reps when Detroit was in base defense.

Not practicing:

• QB Teddy Bridgewater (undisclosed)
• RB Isiah Pacheco (undisclosed)
• RB Sione Vaki (eye, broken nose)
• OT Giovanni Manu (NFI)
• G Juice Scruggs (undisclosed)
• EDGE Derrick Moore (groin)
• EDGE Payton Turner (back)
• LB Malcolm Rodriguez (ankle)
• LB Jimmy Rolder (leg)
• CB D.J. Reed (undisclosed)
• S Kerby Joseph (PUP, knee)

Bridgewater was nowhere to be seen on Thursday, leaving undrafted rookie quarterback Luke Atlmyer to take all of the second and third-team reps. He got a ton of work in Thursday, which is obviously good for his development. He did not look out of place, either.

Some reporters believe they saw Pacheco during warmups (I hadn’t started attendance yet), but he was not present for the rest of practice. With Pacheco, Vaki, and Gibbs not participating in team drills, the first-team reps were split pretty evenly between Jacob Saylors and Jabari Small.

No word on why Juice Scruggs was out. But with him out and Bartch still limited, Christian Mahogany took all of the starting left guard reps that I saw. Michael Niese stepped in for Scruggs as the backup center, as well.

With Reed out for undisclosed reasons, it was primarily Rock Ya-Sin and Nick Whiteside as the starting cornerbacks, with a heavy day of nickel reps for Ennis Rakestraw.

Left practice early

• EDGE Tyler Lacy (undisclosed)
• DT Mekhi Wingo (groin)
• CB De’Shawn Rucker (ankle)

We did not get an update on Lacy, suggesting his early exit was heat related. In his place as the starting big end, Detroit utilized both Ahmed Hassanein and some Levi Onwuzurike with the ones. But with a lot of nickel looks on Thursday, DJ Wonnum got a significant workload opposite Aidan Hutchinson.

With Wingo out, rookie Skyler Gill-Howard got the bump up at three-tech, playing with both the first and second-team defenses. Onwuzurike also took some of those reps.

Rucker appeared to suffer an injury during 7-on-7 red zone drills.