Campbell Doesn't Feel Good About Branch Playing against Panthers
Both Brian Branch and Amon-Ra St. Brown will remain sidelined for the Detroit Lions' Friday practice ahead of their Week 5 matchup with Carolina.
Branch, who has been out all week with an ankle injury, was given a grim prognosis by coach Dan Campbell Friday.
"Don't feel as good about him this weekend," Campbell said. "There again, I don't think it's this long-term, that's why we didn't put him on IR. We're hopeful for Tampa (in Week 6) but we'll just have to play it by ear."
If Branch is unable to go, the Lions have a contingency plan in place involving players such as Will Harris, Jerry Jacobs and Emmanuel Moseley. Harris could play a number of positions in the secondary, while Moseley is expected to make his season debut after missing the first four games recovering from an injury.
Campbell said that Jacobs would remain as an outside corner, while Harris could see the most nickel reps in Branch's absence.
St. Brown, meanwhile, has more optimistic expectations ahead of Sunday. Though he won't practice Friday, the Lions are planning to work him out on the side and analyze where he's at physically before making a final decision on his status.
The wideout told reporters Thursday that he plans to play. He offered an analysis on the team's struggles in the second half of games.
"It's something that we've kind of struggled with for a while now," St. Brown said Thursday. "For me, it's like, yeah coming out of half you want to have a good series, you want to have a good drive start. But at the end of the day, say you get 12 series a game, just because you have one out of half that wasn't well, it's not gonna determine the outcome of the game. You can get one the next series after that. It is nice to come out of half and start the game strong, but at the end of the day, say you get 12 a game, if you make the most out of the 12 you should be fine. We want to be better at that, but we've just got to keep doing our thing and maybe if we try not to focus so hard on it we'll be better. It's definitely something we've got to be better at."
