| The Detroit News
It turns out the Detroit Lions will need Everson Griffen more than originally anticipated. On Monday, coach Matt Patricia announced Trey Flowers is headed to injured reserve with an undisclosed injury and will miss at least the next three games.
While Patricia didn’t clarify what Flowers was dealing currently with, the coach did acknowledge it was a new injury, suffered in Sunday’s 41-21 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
The injury appeared to occur in the fourth quarter, when Flowers (No arm went limp and he called for a substitute. It’s worth noting he had shoulder surgery before the 2019 season.
In recent weeks, Flowers had appeared on the practice report with a wrist injury, and the team had reduced his snap count in recent weeks. According to Patricia, those were unrelated.
“Some of the snap reduction was just because he had been playing a lot of snaps and we are always conscious; Trey puts his entire body on the line every single play,” Patricia said. “This was a new injury that happened yesterday.”
Flowers, in his second season with the Lions after signing a five-year, $90 million deal as a free agent in 2019, played a season-low 39 snaps against the Colts. In seven games, he’s tallied 22 tackles, 2.0 sacks and two forced fumbles.
Flowers’ injury comes days after the Lions finalized a trade with the Dallas Cowboys for Griffen. Originally expected to back up Flowers and Romeo Okwara, Griffen will likely see an expanded role once he officially joins the roster this week.
As for wide receiver Kenny Golladay, who left the game shortly before the end of the first half with a hip injury, Patricia offered less of an update.
“I would say it’s day by day and week by week,” Patricia said. “Obviously everybody is a little bit sore today from the game yesterday. It was a physical game. Today, guys are going through their medical checks and we’ll see how it looks tomorrow and see how it looks at the end of the week, really.”
If Golladay is unable to play Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings, expect Marvin Hall and rookie Quintez Cephus to see expanded playing time. Hall caught four passes for a career-high 113 yards against the Colts on Sunday.
Sticking with Golladay, Patricia refuted a CBS Sports report that the star receiver skipped a meeting over the week.
“Kenny was here in the morning, Kenny got his COVID test, Kenny was here in the afternoon actually, for some extra work on his body. Kenny was here at night and Kenny was at bed check,” Patricia said. “He was here.
No, I had no issues with Kenny on Saturday.”