Lions DE James Houston's Sunday status not certain

Detroit Lions pass-rusher James Houston might not be ready for Sunday's NFC divisional playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, coach Dan Campbell said Friday.

Houston returned to practice this week after four months of rehab recovering from a broken leg, but the Lions aren't certain they have a complete picture of his readiness after just a few days on the field.

"We still got to gauge if we feel like he will be ready," Campbell said. "He's better. He's a lot better this week than he was last week, and that's the progression of it, right ... every week he should start to get his legs back under him, feel good about it and we got to decide if we really believe that if he goes, are we going to get the production relative to who we're sitting, for the rest of the team?"

Houston played in seven games in 2022 and had 8.0 sacks, when he was largely used as a role player on passing downs.

Houston left the Lions' Week 2 loss to the Seattle Seahawks this season with what the team announced as an ankle injury, but landed on injured reserve with an official diagnosis of a broken fibula.

Defensive end Aidan Hutchinson had 2.0 sacks last week but the Lions would welcome another attention-drawing edge. Hutchinson is attempting to become the fourth NFL player with multiple sacks in four consecutive games, including the playoffs.

The Lions had 41 sacks in the regular season, including 11 in the final three games.