The Detroit Lions welcomed back rookie RB D’Andre Swift this past weekend against the Green Bay Packers after he had missed the previous three contests.
And in his first start since November 15 against Washington, Swift led Detroit’s backfield with seven carries for 24 yards and a touchdown.
And the good news is, he’s feeling more like his normal self after an admittedly “rough” few weeks.
“It’s been a little rough,” Swift said. “Just going through concussion protocol, I’m sure, as y’all know. Just something that was new for me with the headaches and everything like that. Training staff and the doctors here just did a great job of taking me through the protocol, doing every test and making sure everything was OK.
“Yeah, it was something new. I thought it was a concussion, but headaches kept happening. So, as I said, we did a test to make sure that everything was OK. Doctors did a great job in making sure everything was fine, so mentally, I knew nothing structurally was wrong.”
Swift had begun experiencing headaches the Wednesday after the Washington game.
According to running backs coach Kyle Caskey, Swift looked like his old self after a bit of initial rust.
“Yeah, I think he’s fine,” Caskey said. “He was, it was one of those things where I was, you get a little hesitant as a coach because you don’t know when the actual bullets start flying at him out there on the field and different things are going on, and he gets hit a few times for real. How’s he going to react?
“There was one play where he got hit pretty good after catching a pass, and he popped right back up. That was kind of the point where I knew, ‘OK, this kid is going to be OK.’ He’s been his kind of normal self this week, so we’ll keep moving forward with that.”
Thankfully for Swift, the headaches have yet to return.
“I was just so happy to be out there playing the game I love,” he said. “I hate missing time, anything. I mean, I just had to do what I had to do to make sure that I was OK, physically and mentally. As I said, the doctors and the training staff did a great job of just checking all the boxes, making sure I was OK. I couldn’t wait to get back.”
– – Quotes via Justin Rogers of The Detroit News Link – –
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