While most of the Panthers injuries this season have been of the long term variety, the Lions go into Sunday with several key players either on the shelf or nursing injuries.

While this injury report may be slightly later than usual, turned out the Lions were still updating the status of a few key starters, as they announced on Saturday afternoon an update to rookie first round pick Jahmyr Gibbs. Let’s dive into the injury report ahead of Sunday’s game in Detroit.

Panthers Injury Report

• S Xavier Woods (hamstring), G Austin Corbett (knee), TE Stephen Sullivan (hip) – Out: None of these are really surprising at this point. The Panthers made it clear last week they expected Woods to be out for multiple weeks, while Corbett was designated as eligible to return to practice this week off the Physically Unable to Perform List and Sullivan was designated as a returning player from injured/reserve. I am excited to see Corbett return to the starting lineup as the Panthers are currently missing both starters at the guard position from last season, however he has a few weeks before they have to make a decision there.
• CB Donte Jackson (shoulder) – Questionable: Jackson continues to be a repeat name on the injury report, last week having left the game and forcing rookie UDFA D’Shawn Jamison to step in for a heavier load of snaps. Since Jackson was able to get a full practice in on Friday, I think he plays, however the Panthers may be better off keeping him on a pitch count this week.
• RB Miles Sanders (groin), LB Frankie Luvu (hip) – No Injury Designation: The Panthers continue to be careful with two of their veteran leaders on each side of the ball with practice. I expect Sanders will continue to split the load with Chuba Hubbard at RB, where Luvu will be the usual key cog of the defense if he can remain healthy.

Lions Injury Report

(I am going to highlight the key players to appear on the Lions report, as they could field an entire offense or defense with the number of names on their report with designations this week.)

• NCB Brian Branch (ankle), FB Jason Cabinda (knee) – Out: The Lions rookie 2nd round pick has been having himself quite a season so far, but he finds himself out this week alongside the Lions fullback in Cabinda. They could be missing a couple more defensive backs going into Sunday as well, so more on the potential secondary situation in a moment.
• RB Jahmyr Gibbs (hamstring), TE James Mitchell (hamstring), WR Amon-Ra St. Brown (abdomen) – Doubtful: The Lions added 1st round pick Gibbs to the injury report on Friday as a questionable designation before downgrading him to doubtful on Saturday afternoon. With both Gibbs and Cabinda missing, the Lions will likely rely heavily on David Montgomery while mixing in Craig Reynolds and Zonovan Knight. St. Brown will likely miss the game as well as their number one wide receiver, however the Lions were able to add some reinforcements at WR this week, getting back 2022 first round pick Jameson Williams from his early season suspension.
• OT Taylor Decker (ankle), FS Kerby Joseph (hip), DB Emmanuel Moseley (knee/hamstring), WR Josh Reynolds (groin), WR Jameson Williams (not injury related), G Halapoulivaati Vaitai (knee) – Questionable: While this list isn’t small, pretty much every player dealing with some sort of injury managed a full practice on Friday and that generally is a good indicator that they can play if needed. Two of their starting OL are on this list though, which could certainly help a Panthers run defense that has struggled to keep opposing rushing attacks contained as games go on. Someone will need to step up at WR as well between Reynolds and Williams, as they’ll work to mitigate the likely absence of St. Brown alongside Marvin Jones, Kalif Raymond, and Antoine Green. The Lions having a bit of a battered WR group is opportune for a Panthers secondary that is currently paper thin at cornerback as well. On the Lions secondary front, with the team missing Brian Branch and looking at two more banged up players in their group, they could also be looking at a thin CB selection on Sunday. But again, almost everyone on this list should be able to play after Friday’s practices. We’ll see however what the Lions choose to do when the game day inactives come out.

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