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Lions might sit WR Calvin Johnson through Week 9 bye
When Lions head coach Jim Caldwell was asked Monday if he would consider sidelining star wideout Calvin Johnson until after the team's Week 9 to allow his injured ankle to completely heal, well, he didn't say no."The fact of the matter is I leave it up to the doctors," Caldwell said. "Those are the professionals. They know exactly what it takes, what can be done."Them, in conjunction with Calvin and how he feels, they treat not only symptoms and the situation but also the patient as well, in terms of what he feels. So they'll let us know what's the best avenue to take."It should be noted that Caldwell also said Johnson and the team's other's banged-up stars -- Reggie Bush and Theo Riddick -- were "coming along and improving rapidly."Johnson, who has been dealing with a high ankle sprain since Week 4, didn't play for the first time this season yesterday after aggravating the injury during the previous week's game.
The Detroit Free Press' Dave Birkett believes that if Caldwell truly believed Calvin could return before that bye week, he would have made a "stronger effort" to suggest the contrary.Perhaps he will be back in a week or two, but the point here is that fantasy owners need to at least prepare for the prospect of being without Megatron until Week 10. As tough as that might be process, it's for the best. The Lions need to get him back to 100 percent and back to being his dominating self.It's pretty obvious that Golden Tate will operate as Detroit's No. 1 WR for as long as Johnson is out. In the past three weeks, while Johnson was either inactive or an on-field decoy, Tate saw 31 targets and caught 22 passes for nearly 300 yards. Next week's game against the Saints looks like a shootout on paper, but you probably need to lower expectations for Matthew Stafford; he has clearly and quite understandably not been the same quarterback without the league's best wide receiver available.
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