Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown has 'pretty good' chance to play vs. Tampa Bay this week
The Detroit Lions are optimistic that leading receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown will return to action Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after a one-game absence due to an abdominal injury.
“I feel pretty good about the possibility of him playing this week,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said in his weekly Tuesday morning interview on 97.1-WXYT FM. “I think it's certainly more than questionable, I think it's closer to probable at this point. We'll see how this week goes.”
St. Brown sat out the Lions’ 42-24 win over the Carolina Panthers last week with an injury he sustained in the Lions’ Week 4 win over the Green Bay Packers.
The third-year receiver did not practice last week, but ran full-speed in workouts with trainers as part of the team’s rehab group during portions of practice open to the media.
Campbell said the Lions exercised caution with St. Brown to ensure his injury did not turn into a longer-term issue.
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St. Brown leads the Lions with 26 catches and 331 receiving yards and is coming off a Pro Bowl season.
"It’s not easy to put Saint down, as you can imagine,” Campbell said. “That's not something that he really wants to hear but it was the right thing to do.”
The Lions (4-1) lead the NFC North by two games and play three of their next four against teams with .500 or better records. The Buccaneers (3-1) are in first place in the NFC South.
In St. Brown’s absence last week, eight different players caught passes and Jared Goff threw touchdowns to Sam LaPorta (two) and Josh Reynolds.
LaPorta is second on the team and leads all rookie tight ends with 25 catches for 289 yards, while Reynolds has 16 catches for 291 yards and three touchdowns. Campbell called Reynolds, who leads the Lions at 18.2 yards per catch, “as trustworthy a player as we have on this team.”
“I see a guy that is very reliable, very dependable,” Campbell said. “He’s tough. I mean, this guy’s playing through stuff, too, now. I think it goes unnoticed at times, but he shows up, he gives us what he can during the week and then rolls out there on gameday and he just makes plays for us. And his body language when it comes to the pass game as to when it’s time to make breaks, where he’s going to be, yeah, he’s going to be there, he and Goff are, man they’re in an unbelievable synch together.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dan Campbell optimistic Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown will return Sunday
