ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford and center Frank Ragnow are both questionable for Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans after suffering injuries in last week’s loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Stafford suffered a rib cartilage injury in the fourth quarter when he was hit by Kenny Clark and had to leave the game. He did not practice Wednesday or Thursday and was not spotted working out during the open-to-the-media portion of practice Friday. He was listed as doing limited work.
Interim coach Darrell Bevell said the Lions would be taking Stafford’s injury down to the end of the week and that he will travel to Tennessee.
“This may or may not be a workout situation,” Bevell said. “Obviously, the conversation of what he’s doing kind of on the side before we even get that far. But if we need to have a workout Sunday morning, then we’ll end up doing that as well.”
Bevell said Stafford is feeling and moving better and that it’s tough to judge what that means because of his toughness. Stafford said Wednesday that for him, the biggest part of whether he will play is whether he can throw and whether he thinks his body will be able to handle an entire game.
“Don’t want it to be one of those things where you go out there and do something weird early and you’re out after the first series of the game or something,” Stafford said. “Not to say, take a big hit and who knows what could happen. But want to feel good enough to be able to start the game and hopefully be able to finish it as well. Play at a high level.
“All those things are things that are kind of a must, and we’ll see if we can get there by the end of the week.”
Stafford said his regimen of trying to get better consisted of heat, ice, rest and movement. He did not know, as of Wednesday, if he would need extra padding or an extra wrap on his ribs if he were to play — although he joked he would “tape a pillow to my ribs or something.”
If Stafford is unable to play, Chase Daniel would be expected to start.
Meanwhile, Ragnow, who was told to not speak Wednesday or Thursday to rest his vocal cords after suffering a vocal cord contusion as part of his fractured throat injury, visited a specialist Friday to get an update.
He did not practice Friday but has been around the facility all week, either writing answers down or having teammates and coaches asking him questions he could answer with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down or a nod or shake of the head. Ragnow’s ability to breathe or eat was not compromised by the injury.
“I can tell you this: I know that we went from our people to the specialist, and the specialist will really guide us on that information and whether it’s safe for him to go back out in the game,” Bevell said. “I can tell you we’re not going to put him out there if it’s not safe.
“We don’t want long repercussions of this for him down the road, and I don’t think he would want that either. So we’ll take the information that we get from the specialist and go with that.”
If Ragnow is unable to play, it’s possible rookie guard Jonah Jackson would slide over to center and Joe Dahl would enter the lineup at guard — the position he played before he lost his job midseason. Detroit could also play Dahl at center if need be.
Rookie defensive tackle John Penisini (shoulder) is also questionable, and four Lions players are out: right tackle Tyrell Crosby (ankle), defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand (ankle), cornerback Darryl Roberts (hip) and wide receiver Kenny Golladay (hip).
Roberts’ injury continues Detroit’s issues at cornerback, where only Amani Oruwariye and Justin Coleman remain healthy among the team’s top five corners.
Golladay is missing his seventh straight game with a hip flexor that hasn’t healed as fast as he would have hoped. Speaking for the first time since being injured, Golladay shot down the idea that his absence has anything to do with his contract as he heads toward free agency and explained that the injury, which he described as a “muscle strain,” got tweaked, keeping him out longer.
“For sure, want to be out there on the field. Even when I was going out there [for practice], I for sure thought that I was ready or I wouldn’t have went out there,” Golladay said. “And yeah, it clearly just wasn’t ready yet, to be honest.
“It sucks, really. But I mean, I got to be smart with my body.”