D'Andre Swift Injury Update, Alex Anzalone Will Not Suit Up Again in 2021

Alex Anzalone has become the latest Detroit Lion to be bit by the proverbial injury bug.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell announced Monday that his starting linebacker would miss the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury. Anzalone left early in Detroit’s 30-12 win over Arizona Sunday.

“That’s a tough deal,” Campbell said. “I don’t feel like we think it’s a major injury, but it’s gonna knock him out for the year. So he got the shoulder, but we don’t believe this is some long-term issue. It’s just, with three games left, we know that it’ll probably knock him out for this season.”

Anzalone finishes his first year as a Lion with 14 games played, all starts. In that span, he made 49 total tackles, a tackle for loss and an interception. The long-haired Pennsylvania native brought veteran leadership to a linebacker room that remains very young.

“He’s been rock solid man,” Campbell said. “He’s been one of those guys, man, he’s been as steady as a rock. He’s really our quarterback on defense and it’ll hurt.”

Without his starter at the position, Campbell will turn to Jalen Reeves-Maybin to take over the defensive play-calling responsibilities. He too has been dealing with injuries, but was forced to play 72 plays after Anzalone’s exit.

“Now, (Jalen) Reeves-Maybin has to step in and take the green dot,” Campbell said. “Which is not something he normally does and our plan was, with both he and Alex, knowing they were both coming back off injuries, just give them stuff to get them back in the flow and not, we didn’t want it to be overbearing and yet, Reeves-Maybin has to play 72 plays man. And he’s the green dot, and he played all out. It wasn’t perfect but I tell you what, the guy made a ton of plays for us.”

Creativity on offense

The Lions scored 30 points on offense for the first time since Week 1. Quarterback Jared Goff led the charge, completing 21-of-26 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns. He connected on scoring strikes with rookie Amon-Ra St. Brown, Josh Reynolds and Jason Cabinda.

Moving into the final three games, Campbell said his team has plenty of room to grow on the offensive side.

“They’re starting to mesh,” Campbell said. “Between just the quarterback and them, the addition of (Craig) Reynolds, I’ve talked about Ben Johnson just bringing clarity. Look, I think (receivers coach Antwaan Randle-El) is doing a great job with those receivers. There’s just been so many little details to what we’ve been doing that just needed to be honed in on. I think that it just is, the trust is starting to grow between all those guys in the pass game.”

Campbell took over the play-calling duties from offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn before the team’s Week 11 game at Pittsburgh. Since then, he’s evolved and shown some creativity with the offense.

Against Denver in Week 14, it was a fake reverse action that cleared receiver Kalif Raymond for a touchdown. Sunday, the Lions ran a play featuring St. Brown faking a run block, then zooming past his defender on the way to a 37-yard touchdown.

“That was a play we put in this week actually,” St. Brown said. “Basically like a little sneak out the, I’m blocking down on one of the ends, taking the defense off me and it works perfectly against zone because they took the over route on the left side, and I snuck out side and Jared threw a great ball.”

Moving forward, the rookie receiver said he loves the thought of the offense’s creativity. St. Brown, specifically, has played coming out of the backfield and even got a carry in the win over the Cardinals.

“When they put me in the backfield, they like matching me up with a linebacker,” St. Brown said. “They feel like I can win that one-on-one. They gave me a little draw because we were 100 percent pass when I was in the backfield so they gave me a little draw to throw the defense off. But it’s fine, I love doing everything.”

Notes

Campbell noted that cornerback Amani Oruwariye’s third quarter interception was the biggest play of the Sunday’s win.

“It just snuffed out any opportunity for them to get the momentum back,” Campbell said. “Or get it going at all. That was huge.”

Starting running back D’Andre Swift could return to practice this week after missing the last three games with a shoulder sprain.

“I still think we’re taking this week-to-week, day-to-day,” Campbell said. “There again, I know as of (Monday) morning he feels better than he did last week. He feels better than he was Saturday when we worked with him. Our plan is to work him back into practice this week and see how he feels.”