Latest injury report shows the Lions could have an extremely hard challenge ahead of them on Sunday against the Vikings

The Detroit Lions have a big game ahead of them when they take on the undefeated Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. The Vikings are a tough team and part of that is because they feature two very good receivers. One of them, of course, being Justin Jefferson, arguably the best receiver in football. 

The Lions were initially expected to go into this game with Carlton Davis and the expectation would be that he would shadow Jefferson and rookie Terrion Arnold would take on Jordan Addison. That doesn't look like it's going to happen this week. At least not at this point. 

Davis was injured against the Cowboys on Sunday and did not practice on Wednesday. Lions head coach Dan Campbell said earlier that day that he was optimistic that Davis would play on Sunday and that they would know more on Thursday. Now it's Thursday and Davis did not practice again. That's concerning for Detroit. There's still Friday for things to come together, but right now it looks like he's out. 

If that's the case, the Lions are going to have to go into this game starting two rookies with Arnold going up against Jefferson. That will by far be his biggest challenge yet in the NFL. Then they'll have second round pick Ennis Rakestraw on the other side and judging by his usage so far, the Lions will probably be rotating Khalil Dorsey and Kindle Vildor in as well. 

Here's where the Lions may get some benefit. The Vikings have not thrown the ball a ton this season. Only 138 times all season. That's second fewest in the NFL. The Lions do have one of the top run defenses though, so that might force the Vikings to play a more one dimensional game. 

Either way, when the ball is thrown the Lions are going to have two young rookies trying to stop it from getting in the hands of two great receivers. The Lions are really going to have to lean on their safeties to make this more of a bend, but don't break type of an outing.