WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

Notes, Quotes

The Sports Xchange

December 13, 2018 at 12:54 am.

–The Lions placed defensive end Ziggy Ansah on injured reserve Tuesday, ending his season and likely his career in Detroit.

Ansah reinjured his right shoulder in the first half of last week’s win over the Arizona Cardinals. He missed six games with a separated shoulder earlier this year, and has struggled through an assortment of injuries the last three seasons.

The Lions used the franchise tag on Ansah last spring, but never came close to signing the 29-year-old to a long-term contract. They’ll be in the market for a more reliable pass rusher this spring, when Ansah becomes a free agent.

“Ziggy’s been great for me,” Lions head coach Matt Patricia said. “This year, we’ve worked really well together. I think I’ve grown as a coach, he’s grown as a player. I think that relationship has been great. It’s unfortunate, but injuries happen as far as that’s concerned and right now, our focus is just trying to get onto the Bills and get ready to go and make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to win this weekend. So, that’s really kind of just the short-term picture for us.”

–The Lions had no intentions of taking an offensive tackle in April’s draft, but couldn’t help themselves when Tyrell Crosby was still on the board in the fifth round.

Crosby was considered a Day 2 talent who fell because of concerns over concussions he suffered in college, and now has the makings of the Lions’ right tackle of the future. He played sparingly as the team’s sixth offensive lineman over the first 12 games, but held his own in his first extended action last week after Rick Wagner left with a concussion.

If Wagner can’t play Sunday, Crosby will make his first career start against the Bills.

“He’s a guy that really for me in watching him through the course of the season, (I’ve seen him) develop and become a professional and understand what it takes week in and week out to prepare and be ready to go,” Patricia said. “I just have been impressed with his ability to kind of grow through the course of the season. He’s a guy that really just has a very, we’ll call it even temperament or very calmness about him in his preparation. He just kind of takes all the information, absorbs it, goes out, he can step into a lot of different positions in the offensive line.”

BY THE NUMBERS: 125 – Matthew Stafford ran his consecutive games played streak to 125 last Sunday, the third longest among active quarterbacks in the NFL. Stafford is dealing with a back injury that’s limited him in practice for more than a week and appears to be impacting his play on the field. Stafford threw for just 101 yards in last week’s win over the Cardinals, the second-lowest total of his career, and he’s on pace for fewer than 4,000 yards passing for the first time since his injury-shortened season of 2010.

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