Schwartz on Bullocks: We're gonna shut him down for a little while
The news doesn't look promising for safety Daniel Bullocks, who continues to sit out of training camp nursing a sore right knee. It's the same knee he had surgically repaired after suffering a torn ACL in the 2007 preseason. And Bullocks, who played last season but missed much of the Lions' offseason work this spring and summer, returned to Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., to have the knee re-examined over the weekend.
Coach Jim Schwartz said Tuesday there's "nothing new with his knee," but acknowledged he'll be out indefinitely.
"We're gonna shut him down for a little while and then sort of take it slow again, with an eye toward getting him back on the field," Schwartz said. "He's not day-to-day; he's a little bit longer than that.
"He needs to be out on the field practicing. He knows that, I know that. We just need to work through some soreness and things like that. He had a signficant knee injury that's troublesome. And we just gotta find a way to push through that."
Asked if the team would proceed as if they'd be without Bullocks to start the season, Schwartz shook his head. "I think it's too early to do that," he said. "Obviously, every day he misses, he's missing things and he's getting a little bit farther behind. But i don't think at this point we plan to be without any of the guys that are injured. it's probably a little bit too early to be thinking like that."
Bullocks has plenty of company on the sidelines, with several players injured, including guard Damion Cook, who'll have surgery to repair a torn triceps muscle Friday, and Jared DeVries, who joined Cook on injured reserve after rupturing his Achilles tendon in practice Monday.
Also out are receivers Calvin Johnson (sprained thumb), Bryant Johnson (non-football injury), and Dennis Northcutt (thumb) -- all three spent the morning practice doing running drills Tuesday. Others who missed Monday's morning practice: tight end Casey Fitzsimmons (ankle), tight end Brandon Pettigrew (thigh), safety Louis Delmas (knee), receiver John Standeford (hamstring), Maurice Morris (hamstring) Marquand Manuel (calf), Zach Follett (shoulder), Keith Smith (groin), linebacker Jordon Dizon (hamstring), and Lydon Murtha (undisclosed), Grady Jackson (rest). Receiver Derrick Williams came up limping on his left leg in the final team drill of the morning session.
