The NFL is now reviewing whether the Detroit Lions violated league protocol in regards to properly reporting quarterback Matthew Stafford's injury last week, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.
Stafford's status for Week 10 unraveled rather quickly leading up to the Lions' game with the Chicago Bears. He was a limited participant in practice throughout the week and even downplayed his ailments before being ruled questionable because of a back and hip injury. Then, reports surfaced on Saturday that things were trending in a negative direction surrounding his chances to play and he was ultimately inactive for Sunday's matchup against Chicago.
The timeline around when the Lions actually knew Stafford was not playing does seem to be up in the air. Players noted that they knew on Saturday, so the team holding out that information until game day could open them up to violating league rules. For reference, the Steelers and coach Mike Tomlin were fined a total of $100,000 for hiding Ben Roethlisberger's injury in Week 2, the game before he landed on season-ending injured reserve.
While speaking to reporters on Monday, Lions coach Matt Patricia noted that they made the decision to name Jeff Driskel the starter on Saturday and waited until Sunday morning to see if Stafford would be able to dress for the game. He also expanded upon how exactly the week transpired with his franchise quarterback.
"He felt really good through the course of the week, so that was all positive from that standpoint," said Patricia, via Pro Football Talk. "We had some additional scanning Friday evening that took place. That scanning really caused us to have some further internal discussions over the weekend. That was really what kind of sparked some of those conversations. The discussions, the details of those I'm going to leave private because they're medical conversations."
He added: "Honestly, we spent most of Saturday trying to figure out a way, if there was a way for him to play safely. That's really it. He's very competitive. He's honestly one of the toughest guys I've ever been around. I've seen him play through some pain in other games that I don't even know if some of the toughest guys would have played through. In those situations where it looks like we're going through the course of the week in previous weeks where he's been really sore, beat up, and I'm like, 'I don't know if this guy's going to make it,' and he shows up on Sunday. With that in mind, knowing the toughness, knowing how competitive he is, I just wanted to wait as long as possible really from that standpoint because of his situation."
As for Stafford's status right now, Patricia notes that he is "day by day, week by week right now."
