ALLEN PARK — Football is a beautiful game of extraordinary violence, and everyone deals with injuries eventually. But the Detroit Lions aren’t just experiencing a rash of injuries. They’re experiencing a rash of back Injuries specifically, which has prompted the team to consider whether something they are doing — or not doing — is causing the injuries.
It’s a good question because you can’t help but at least look at it and say, ‘All right, are we doing something? Do we need to do something different? Is there something that we’re not doing right?”‘ head coach Dan Campbell said. “We’re looking at everything, and there’s nothing that I can think of right now that says we did something that we shouldn’t have been doing.”
Four players from the initial 53-man roster are currently out with back injuries. One, defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike, has struggled with back injuries going back to his days at the University of Washington. Detroit took him in the second round last year anyway, believing his upside as an interior pass rusher outweighed the risk for re-injury.
Instead, Onwuzurike missed his entire rookie training camp while dealing with more back pain, then didn’t make it through his first padded practice of this season before going down with another. The Lions waited out the injury for more than five weeks hoping Onwuzurike would return in time for the start of the season, but eventually put him on injured reserve on the eve of the opener. He’ll miss at least the first four games of the season, and at least nine weeks of practice overall.
Across the trench, Tommy Kraemer — Detroit’s top backup guard — suffered a back injury late in training camp. He began missing practice in the final week of preseason, then sat out the finale before eventually going on injured reserve this week.
Halapoulivaati Vaitai, the starting right guard, developed back pain the same week as Kraemer. He played all 29 snaps with the rest of the first-team offensive line against Pittsburgh, but grabbed at his back at least once along the way, later went on injured reserve because of the injury and eventually was recommended for back surgery. He underwent that operation on Tuesday night in Dallas, and it remains unclear whether he’ll play again in 2022.
“That’s to monitor,” Campbell said. “He’ll certainly be out for a little while here, but we’re not ruling out he’s done for the season.”
The injuries to Vaitai and Kraemer have forced Detroit to dig deep on its bench, starting Logan Stenberg — who had played just four offensive snaps in his career — at right guard against Philadelphia. A finger injury to left guard Jonah Jackson has worsened the situation this week, and could force Kayode Awosika, signed off Philadelphia’s practice squad, to start on Sunday against Washington.
Making matters even worse, starting cornerback Amani Oruwariye starting experiencing back pain this week too. He suited up for practice on Thursday and tried to warm up with teammates, but eventually notified the medical staff he had an issue with his lower back. He tried to stretch out for more than 5 minutes, but ultimately was scratched from practice and headed back inside the training facility. He didn’t practice on Friday either and is considered day-to-day heading into the game against the Commanders.
That’s four players from the initial 53-man roster now out because of back injuries. And that doesn’t even include receiver Quintez Cephus, who missed a couple weeks of training camp with a back injury he sustained while making an acrobatic catch.
“We’ll turn over every stone, and if we feel like it’s something that I need to change or adjust, I’ll certainly do that,” Campbell said. “But I can’t say that there’s anything right now that we’ve done any different. We’re smart with how we train. Anytime a guy’s got back issues, we don’t put a burden on their back. It’s single leg squats (and stuff like that). So,there’s a number of things we try to do. I feel like we’re really good in that area. But certainly these are popping up.”