The Detroit Lions have been fortunate to remain relatively healthy during the NFL postseason.
Despite a handful of players suffering from minor injuries, several of their key contributors have played in the first two postseason games.
Jonah Jackson and Frank Ragnow, two crucial offensive lineman, were injured during the team’s divisional round victory and were unable to participate in Wednesday’s walkthrough.
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Jackson had an operation to repair a minor meniscus injury and is unlikely to play on Sunday. Meanwhile, Ragnow is expected to battle through the latest setback in a series of injuries.
Despite suffering a damaged knee and sprained ankle as a result of getting rolled up on in Sunday’s game, the veteran center plans to play despite the injuries.
Despite his injury, he played every offensive snap for Detroit in the Divisional Round.
“I feel pretty good, to be honest,” Ragnow remarked Monday. “Better than I had imagined. Stiff, absolutely stiff, but I’ve been rehabbing and feel relatively decent. I feel like I am in a good place.”
Dan Campbell, the Lions’ head coach, was aware of the resources at his disposal prior to the season. Though he could not pinpoint a precise moment when he sensed the team would be special, he admitted Wednesday that he had a hunch this club was going to make a splash back in training camp.
“I don’t always think like that. I take each week as it comes. I’ve addressed it before, but it’s about finding a way to win as many games as possible and putting yourself in a position where, when you make the playoffs, you have the best possible chance of advancing,” Campbell explained. “And then you go to that one, and everything revolves around that one, and then you get to the next one, and so on.
“I’m kind of that way in general. If you had asked me what I believed was achievable, I would have told you at training camp that I knew we’d be a terrific team,” Campbell continued. “Now, who knows what it will be? It’s about getting in. And we got in; now it’s one week at a time.”
