The Detroit Lions have been without defensive end Marcus Davenport since he suffered a chest injury against the Chicago Bears back in Week 2. It's broadly been hard to be overly optimistic about when he would return to action, given his recent history, but head coach Dan Campbell has certainly tried.
Davenport returned to full practice participation late last week, which seemed to foreshadow his looming return. The Lions playing three games in an 11-day stretch, as has become common around the Thanksgiving Day game, likely played a role in Davenport not playing in Week 12.
During his regular Tuesday appearance on 97.1 The Ticket's "Costa and Jansen with Heather", Campbell sounded optimistic that Davenport will be able to suit up against the Green Bay Packers despite there being no normal practices during the short week.
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"We’re hopeful. We’re hopeful. He looked really good last week,” Campbell said. “We’re getting him some walkthrough reps. We did yesterday, we’re getting him some today.”
During his press conference on Tuesday, Campbell was asked if there's a chance Davenport plays on Thursday.
"It would be big to be able to get him back", Campbell said. "He's done a lot to get back. The amount of work that he's put in, and the amount of rehab. It's not his fault things have happened."
Campbell lauded how Davenport has "done the work" to get healthy, before getting to a direct answer to the question.
"We're hopeful. He walked through (did walkthrough practice) yesterday, he's gonna walk through again today, and we'll see."
The move was not announced by the team as of this writing, but earlier on Tuesday Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported Lions were going to waive cornerback Arthur Maulet. So there will be an open spot on the active roster.
As noted by Jeremy Reisman of Pride of Detroit, Davenport is one of three players who could come off IR for the Lions. Defensive end Josh Paschal and offensive lineman Miles Frazier are actually at the end of their 21-day windows to be activated, or they'll have to remain on IR for the rest of the season.
But if only one 53-man roster spot needs to be opened this week, Campbell's comments about Davenport strongly suggest waiving Maulet (again, pending that move being made official) was to make room for him.
Update, 5:15 p.m. ET: The Lions announced they have waived Maulet, cornerback Nick Whiteside and defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson, along with re-singing safety Erick Hallett to the practice squad.