Jared Goff Not Planning to Sit, Even If Penei Sewell Cannot Play

Detroit Lions Dan Campbell is planning to call plays to win against the Chicago Bears.

From left, Detroit Lions offensive tackle Penei Sewell (58), quarterback Jared Goff (16) and Taylor Decker (68) | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Detroit Lions right tackle Penei Sewell is not trending in the right direction to play against the Chicago Bears.

Head coach Dan Campbell is still holding out a little hope the former first-round pick can play, but the odds have diminished, since he did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

Sewell injured his ankle playing on Christmas against the Minnesota Vikings.

Many wondered if Giovanni Manu would be a replacement, but Detroit's fifth-year head coach told reporters he does not see the inexperienced lineman playing this week.

While he did gain valuable experiencing practicing, next year is when the team is expecting him to compete for an increase role along the offensive line.

With a player of Sewell's caliber potentially missing the finale, many would naturally wonder if Jared Goff is still in line to play, given the team has nothing meaningful to play for.

Campbell expressed he is going to call the game to win and often has to ponder how to distribute the football to the many weapons available on the offense.

For the former No. 1 overall pick, there is no doubt why he still wants to play.

“Yeah, it’s what I’m paid to do. I’m the quarterback of this team and paid to play on Sundays and do my job and do it to the best of my ability," said Goff. "It doesn’t matter what our record is, what the situation may be, that’s my job. And it’s about, I think Dan (Campbell) talked to us about this earlier - it’s about respect. Not only respect for yourself within your own team, but respect around the League. We want to go out there and put something good on tape, gain a little bit of respect back from probably some of the loss of respect we’ve earned this year.”

After the season, Goff will look back on what he learned throughout one of the more challenging seasons the organization faced. Expectations were high entering the season, but ended with the team not qualifying for the playoffs.

Yeah, learn a ton. I think I could give you a better answer maybe a week from now, but you’ll go back and look at it and see where you could have done things better," said Goff. "And you’re constantly evaluating yourself but I think every guy looks internally at themselves and how can they improve. I know I certainly will and what ways can I be better and help our team.”