Hours before kicking off against Ravens, Lions place Marcus Davenport on IR
Baltimore, Md. — Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell said this weekend that he doesn’t anticipate Marcus Davenport’s chest injury to be season-ending. Still, the defender will miss at least the next four games, starting with Monday night's matchup against the Ravens, after being placed on injured reserve by the club.
Davenport suffered two injuries in the team’s Week 2 win over Chicago. He initially exited with an ankle injury after teammate Aidan Hutchinson dove into his leg while trying to bring down Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.
Davenport returned in the second half, only to suffer a chest injury while sacking Williams. The defender briefly returned from that injury, as well, before appearing in the postgame locker room with a large ice wrap on his shoulder.
Reluctant to talk about the injury in the immediate aftermath, Davenport was asked about the potential severity.
“Shit, I don't know,” he replied. “We're about to see.”
It’s the latest in a string of significant, yet unrelated injuries for the veteran defender. He missed most of last season, his first with the Lions, after he tore his tricep tussling with Arizona offensive lineman Paris Johnson. Davenport also missed most of the 2023 season while with Minnesota due to a severe ankle injury. He's appeared in just eight of the past 36 regular-season games ahead of the minimum of four he's about to miss.
Despite the durability concerns, the Lions re-signed Davenport this offseason to an incentive-heavy contract that included a low base salary, modest signing bonus, and an ability to more than double his earnings with playing time and performance bonuses. This stint on injured reserve will make it difficult for him to hit even the lowest threshold, playing 40% of defensive snaps during the season.
With Davenport on the shelf, the Lions will first look to in-house options to pick up the slack. That starts with Al-Quadian Muhammah, who logged 36 snaps last week and at least 30 four times in 2024 while helping fill in for Davenport and Hutchinson’s absences.
Other players who could see increased playing time on the edge include Pat O’Connor, Mekhi Wingo, Derrick Barnes and Tyrus Wheat, a late-August waiver claim from Dallas who has yet to see playing time for Detroit through the first two games.
Placing Davenport on injured reserve opens up a roster spot for the Lions. The team didn’t immediately fill that hole, only opting to temporarily elevate tight end Ross Dwelley to backfill the loss of Shane Zylstra, who landed on injured reserve earlier in the week.
A timetable for Davenport remains unclear, but he'll first be eligible to return for Detroit's Oct. 20 game against Tampa Bay.
I got to admit, it almost feels like some people in Detroit were hoping for this to happen. It was literally the only thing anybody could talk about when Davenport's name came up. I'm rooting for him to finish the season strong.
Some times you just roll the dice and you get blank sides. Maybe Marcus and Alim make appearances in late October and they give a boost to the D-line. They may be kind of forced to make a trading deadline move if things are looking in-between-ish.