Detroit Lions Injury Report: Haloti Ngata, Golden Tate Return

By Zac Snyder | Sep 17, 2015

The Detroit Lions injury report remains quite long for it being only the second week of the season, but the news was better today.

Haloti Ngata (shoulder) returned to practice after missing yesterday’s session. Ngata was limited to it is worth keeping an eye on the situation to see how much, if at all, it will impact him this week. For now, consider it good news he is back on the practice field and that it isn’t a re-aggravation of the injury that kept him out several weeks during training camp (hamstring). Jim Caldwell didn’t go into details of the severity, but he didn’t voice any concern over Ngata’s status:

"It hasn’t kept him out of a game yet. So, obviously, like I said, everybody’s got something. I mean you check with every guy up front, there’s a little tweak here, a little tweak there, a little problem here, a problem there. It’s just kind of the nature of the sport. But, you know, I think he’ll be alright."

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Golden Tate (quad) also returned to practice on a limited basis. It was a hit on a punt return last week that led to the injury but Jim Caldwell was clear in saying that won’t scare the Lions away from using Tate as a punt returner going forward:

"Football, it’s not two-hand touch. You can get hit from a scrimmage play as well. It doesn’t really matter in that regard because it’s a 100 percent injury rate and things happen. So we look at it week-to-week depending upon what we think we need to get done, so there will probably be times you’ll see him back there again and we’ll move on."

The news is less positive for DeAndre Levy (hip) and Brandon Pettigrew (hamstring) as neither have been able to practice yet this week. Last week’s defensive performance highlighted Levy’s importance in pass coverage yet there remains no timetable for when he might return.

Unchanged from yesterday were Caraun Reid (ankle), Darius Slay (ankle), Larry Warford (ankle) – all three were limited participants for the second day in a row. Matthew Stafford (right upper arm) was also unchanged from yesterday but he has been a full participant all week.

New to today’s injury report was LaAdrian Waddle. The report notes an elbow injury after not being listed yesterday but Waddle was able to fully practice today.

The health situation for week two is much better on the Vikings side of things, where just Jerick McKinnon (ankle) and Shamar Stephen (knee) were listed on their injury report and both players have been full participants this week.

Next: Week 2 NFL Power Rankings

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