By: Michael Stets
ALLEN PARK — The Detroit Lions had their first official practice of training camp on Sunday afternoon, but it wasn’t a good day for tight end Eric Ebron. That’s because he left practice with a hamstring injury, according to head coach Jim Caldwell.
Ebron, now entering his fourth season with the team, participated in individual drills at the start of practice, but was absent during team drills later on as backups Darren Fells and Cole Wick took reps with the first-team offense.
“Yeah, he got a little bit of a tweak, but we’ll see how bad it is,” Caldwell told the media after practice.
When asked for specifics on the injury, Caldwell said, “Yeah, I think it’s the hamstring, but I’m not real sure. The report will come out shortly.”
Ebron has yet to play a full 16-game season in his career, missing a total of eight games since entering the league in 2014. He missed most of training camp last year after suffering a high-ankle sprain during the Lions’ annual mock game at Ford Field, and then missed three games during the regular season due to knee and ankle injuries.
Ebron set career highs in 2016 with 61 receptions for 711 yards. During the offseason, the Lions exercised the fifth-year option on Ebron’s rookie contract, which will pay him a little over $8 million in 2018. Ebron is the latest in a slew of injuries that have befallen the team in recent days. The Lions opened training camp with several players on the physically unable to perform list (PUP) as well as the non-football injury list (NFI), including starters Taylor Decker, Ziggy Ansah and Sam Martin.
Other Notes:
Defensive end Cornelius Washington and tackle Greg Robinson, who were both placed on the NFI on Saturday, were removed from it prior to practice on Sunday afternoon.
Running back Theo Riddick, who had double-wrist surgery during the offseason, was donning the red no-contact jersey at practice on Sunday.
Caldwell had this to say about Riddick: “Yeah, it’s great to see him out there and you know, it’s just kind of a matter of time trying to get him back in the flow to get everything feeling where he feels good consistently. We’re just trying to hold back on some of the contact early on and, we’ll see how it goes. He’s running well, moving well. We just got to watch him a little bit.”