It hasn’t been a sunny week on the Detroit Lions injury front, but head coach Dan Campbell offered a ray of hopeful sunshine on Friday. Campbell indicated that defensive end Julian Okwara could be ready for the Week 1 opener against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“We’re hoping for Philly,” Campbell said when asked about Okwara. “He’s probably got the best shot of all of them to be back.”
Okwara has not practiced since the first week of training camp nearly a month ago. He’s been visible at practices in defensive huddles and has done some light work off to the side with trainers, but Okwara continues to miss valuable practices with his lower leg injury.
Campbell did not disclose if it’s the same lower leg that cost Okwara the final 10 games of his rookie season in 2020. He also missed four games in 2021 with an ankle injury. Okwara’s college career at Notre Dame ended prematurely with a broken fibula in the 2019 season, too.
Back to Campbell’s statement and the rest of the “all of them”. He’s referring to the players who continue to miss practices with injuries, notably DT Levi Onwuzurike, S Ifeatu Melifonwu and S C.J. Moore. It doesn’t look good for any of them to play in Week 1, based on what Campbell said Friday.
