Lions' Eric Ebron suffers 'devastating' leg injury in mock game – Detroit Free Press
Third-year tight end could not put any weight on his lower right leg after injury during today’s scrimmage in Detroit
The Detroit Lions suffered a “devastating” injury in their annual mock game today when third-year tight end Eric Ebron had to be carted off the field with a lower right leg injury.
Ebron spent several minutes on the ground clutching the back of his right leg in the ankle/Achilles area before a cart came to take him to the locker room.
Lions coach Jim Caldwell, who talked to reporters before the game, declined comment about Ebron’s injury after practice.
NFL Network reported that the “early word” on Ebron was that he suffered an Achilles injury.
“It’s devastating,” backup tight end Matthew Mulligan said after practice. “Anytime you see one of your guys go down, especially a guy you’re so close with cause we’re in the same room, it’s awful and you feel for him because you know how much work guys put in. It’s not just now, it’s not just practice, it’s not just training camp, it’s all year round. So to have injuries and have things like that come up, it’s a terrible situation.”
Ebron was blocking on a red-zone running play when he was hurt midway through the fourth quarter of a simulated scrimmage that did not include tackling.
The Lions, who played their first-team offense against their second- and third-team defensive units most of the day, moved the drive to the other side of Ford Field while trainers tended to Ebron.
“Anytime somebody gets injured it’s not a good thing,” said linebacker Kyle Van Noy, a 2014 draft classmate of Ebron’s. “You feel for them because you know how hard it is to get here and you know how hard somebody works. You work so hard to play 16 games and then make it to the playoffs. So you’re sad for them, but at the same time, next man up mentality that we live here over here with the Lions so hopefully it’s nothing and we can bounce back from it.”
Both Ebron and Van Noy have talked extensively this summer about this being a make-or-break fall for them.
As the Lions’ top two picks in the 2014 draft – Ebron was chosen 10th overall, ahead of the likes of Odell Beckham Jr. and Aaron Donald – Ebron and Van Noy have yet to live up to the high expectations fans and the team had on draft day.
Ebron finished fourth on the Lions with 47 catches for 537 yards and four touchdowns last year, and was expected to play an even bigger role this year as the team’s No. 1 tight end.
“For him it’s frustrating, but it’s another bump in the road that he’ll overcome and a lot of people hate on him and give him a hard time but he has a very high ceiling,” Van Noy said. “He’s young. People forget that. He’s really young, he still has a long career ahead of him and if he continue to grow each and every year like he has in the NFL he’ll be fine.”
The Lions, who held Ebron out of practice Friday with an undisclosed injury, are extremely thin at tight end with a just over a month left in the preseason.
Brandon Pettigrew, a part-time starter last year, is on the physically unable to perform list recovering from the torn ACL he suffered last December, and backup Tim Wright was lost to a season-ending torn ACL earlier this spring.
With Ebron out, the Lions’ top tight ends in camp are currently journeyman veterans Mulligan and Orson Charles and undrafted free agents Cole Wick and Adam Fuehne.
Neither Charles nor Mulligan has ever caught more than eight passes in a season, and Wick and Fuehne were signed primarily for their blocking prowess.
Wick, who played at tiny University of the Incarnate Word, has taken second-team reps in training camp most of the summer behind Ebron. He caught a touchdown in Saturday’s practice after Ebron left with his injury.
“I don’t know anything about what’s going on with him, but if I got to play a little more that’s fine,” Wick said. “Hopefully he’s back and ready to go and he’s in good shape.”
Contact Dave Birkett: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
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