The Detroit Lions have revealed their official list of players who are inactive against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium.
Offensive lineman Ben Bartch was previously ruled out. Defensive back D.J. Reed, who was limited at practice all week due to a rib injury, has been ruled active for the Sunday Night Football contest against an NFC South opponent.
Others not suiting up this week include defensive back Bishop Fitzgerald, defensive end Ahmed Hassanein, tight end Tyler Conklin, linebacker Devin White and defensive lineman Mekhi Wingo.
A player that has an opportunity for more playing time this week is cornerback Ennis Rakestraw. After being inactive the first two weeks of the regular season, the former second-round pick had an opportunity to suit up against the New York Jets.
Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard explained this week what factored into Rakestraw playing more in Week 3.
"Well, the active inactive deal is a 46-man roster on game day and it's hard. It's hard numbers-wise," Sheppard explained. "What's best for the team? Again, we were carrying four tight ends then. So, now we went three tight ends, an extra corner. Well, who's that? Alright. Is that a corner? Is that a safety? Does (Bishop) Fitzgerald go? These are all the conversations that's happened that starts with Dan (Campbell) and Brad (Holmes). And then we get in the room, 'What's the plan this week, Shepp? What are you looking to do? How do you want to do it? Do we need this guy?' So, that's kind of how that kind of transpires."
The third-year defensive back had a productive training camp, but also battled injuries near the end of the summer.
"If you guys remember at the tail end of training camp, Ennis had an injury. He was playing kind of at a high level, honestly, coming out of scrimmage, one of his better outputs of camp since he's been here in three years," Sheppard said. "And then he got injured. Luckily for us, it wasn't long-term. So, he was just kind of coming back from that injury, getting back in the groove. So, to just throw him out there without a lot of time on task, I think he had about two weeks off , we felt wasn't the right thing to do."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/lions/onsi as Lions Week 4 Inactives Against Panthers: Is DE Ahmed Hassanein Playing? .
