Tom Kowalski of Mlive.com has indicated that Lions head coach Jim Schwartz has named Shaun Hill the starter in Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings at the Metrodome. This comes after Matthew Stafford was held out again from practice today after suffering a shoulder injury during week one’s loss to the Chicago Bears.
In an interested note however, AOL Fanhouse’s Michael David Smith has written an article where he quotes Jim Schwartz saying that Matthew Stafford sitting out this weekend isn’t necessarily true.
“I think we’re open-minded on that,” Schwartz said, per Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com. “It just really depends on how he’s feeling, and if he’s feeling good and throwing well, can make all the throws, then we make that decision, and if he’s not, then we hold him back. But it’ll be judged on him and how he’s feeling — not an artificial timetable that we set before we even knew where we were going with it.”
At this point all signs are pointing to Hill starting the game this Sunday in Minnesota. Smith however points out that Stafford hasn’t hesitated in playing when he is less then 100% as we’ve seen in the Cleveland game last year. The difference between this year and last year however is the injury to his should he suffered in week one against the Bears happened to his throwing shoulder.
Jim Schwartz and the rest of the Lions staff have been extremely secretive on the status of Stafford’s injury. The coaching staff has also surprised us in the past by starting Stafford when the fans and media were expecting him to sit out. Again though, with the injury happening to his throwing shoulder I don’t expect to see Stafford at all this weekend and would be very surprised if he took any snaps in the game at all.
