Eric Ebron suffered what looked like a serious leg injury more than three weeks ago. Since then, the Lions' tight end has been sidelined with a right ankle injury, itching to return.
"I need to get my ass out there on that field," Ebron said Monday in his first comments since the injury on Aug. 6, via ESPN.com. "'Cause I'm not a huge person that's (into) watching. I like action. I like to be in action. It just sucks being on the sideline, man. It's not my lifestyle. I wasn't born for this. I wasn't bred to do this, but I got to right now."
The former first-round pick won't play in Thursday's final preseason tilt: "Is Matt (Stafford) going to play on Thursday? You ain't going to see Ebron if you don't see Matt Stafford."
Thanks for the third person, Eric.
Missing the entire preseason is a setback for the 23-year-old target who could have used the reps in Jim Bob Cooter's offense. With Calvin Johnson retired, Ebron was in line to see plenty more targets, especially in the red zone.
Now, his status for the regular-season opener remains up in the air.
"That's really not in my hands," Ebron said. "That's up to the people upstairs. I hope. That's all I can do. But it's up to (coach Jim) Caldwell and the medical staff as far as what they want to do with me as far as Week 1 and further than that."
On Tuesday, the team announced it placed Brandon Pettigrew on the reserve/PUP list after he suffered an ACL tear in December. Pettigrew will miss the first six weeks of the season.
Pettigrew's placement on the PUP list, while not a surprise, sidelines Detroit's best blocking tight end for at least a month and a half. Coupled with the release of Matthew Mulligan, another blocking TE, on Monday, the transactions could indicate that perhaps Ebron will be ready for Week 1 -- or at the very least, the first month -- but the Lions won't rush their former first-round pick back on the field.
