Detroit Lions cornerback Justin Coleman is being placed on injured reserve, according to multiple sources, after suffering a hamstring injury in the first half of Sunday’s 27-23 loss to the Chicago Bears.
The earliest Coleman would be able to return from injured reserve would be against Jacksonville in Week 6 because Detroit is off in Week 5.
The Detroit Free Press first reported the news.
Hamstring injuries have been an issue for the Lions throughout camp. Both receiver Kenny Golladay and cornerback Jeff Okudah missed Sunday’s game with hamstring injuries and both Coleman and cornerback Desmond Trufant left the Bears’ loss after injuring their hamstrings.
“It’s a league-wide thing that everyone’s looking at,” Lions coach Matt Patricia said Monday. “It’s really groins and hamstrings. I would say those are the two areas, and then after that would be calves. It’s kind of that posterior chain that goes down through the back of your leg that right now we’re looking at from the stress on those.”
Patricia said they’ve been looking at the condensed offseason — no spring workouts and a shortened training camp period — to see what they can do from keeping these types of injuries from occurring. The third-year Lions head coach said last week one of the things they’ve been looking at with the hamstring type of injuries is keeping them from lingering.
“The one thing that we’re trying to do, and really why you’ll see it on the injury report a lot, is we’re trying to prevent them from being long-term type of soft-tissue injuries,” Patricia said. “So even if we get guys that are tight, that may be on the milder side, maybe a seven-, 10-, 14-day type stuff, we’re trying to prevent the four-week type of injury there.”
The Lions will potentially replace Coleman in the lineup with either Darryl Roberts, Tony McRae or Okudah if he’s able to return from his hamstring injury. The injury to Trufant also bears watching, because if he can’t play, Detroit ends up very thin at the position going up against Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay on Sunday.
It’s possible Detroit will look to sign a cornerback out of workouts this week as well.
Coleman had one pass defensed before leaving Sunday’s game. In 17 games with the Lions, he’s made 54 tackles with one interception, 14 pass breakups and three forced fumbles.