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Lions' Options At Tight End If Ebron's Out

Eric Ebron collapsed to the turf, the trainers rushed to his aid and the Lions' outlook at tight end went from hopeful to bleak.

Now what?

Ebron is the team's latest tight end to join the ranks of the infirm. Brandon Pettigrew is still working his way back from a torn ACL he sustained last December and Tim Wright has been ruled out for the season after suffering the same injury in the spring.

If Ebron is shelved for a considerable length of time as well, the Lions will be without their top three tight ends heading into the 2016 campaign. Ebron, the presumptive starter, was carted off the field on Saturday morning at Ford Field after suffering an apparent right Achilles injury.

We should pause here to point out that the specifics of Ebron's injury haven't been released. But the former first-round pick appeared to be in a heavy amount of pain as he fell to the turf, clutching the back of his ankle in ominous fashion. And when Ebron finally rose to his feet, gingerly so, he couldn't put any weight on his lower right leg.

It was a mock game, but the injury looked disturbingly real.

"It's devastating," said backup tight end Matthew Mulligan. "Anytime you see one of your guys go down, especially a guy you're so close with because we're in the same room, it's awful. And you feel for him because you know how much work he put in."

It is Mulligan who is likely to step into the starter's role for the time being. The journeyman tight end, who has played for ten NFL teams over a seven-year career, has a limited ceiling but a strong command of the position. He started five games for the Bills in 2015, making just one reception.

Asked if he would feel comfortable running up to 40 routes per game, Mulligan sounded confident.

"I've had to do it in my career, yeah. It just hasn't been that much, but I have run a lot of routes," he said. "When I was with the Rams [in 2012] I ran a lot - didn't get a lot of passes, but at the same time I was running a lot of routes so running routes is not the issue."

"If it comes down to it and they call my name, I'll be ready," Mulligan added.

A less experienced but more intriguing option is undrafted rookie Cole Wick. Signed by the Lions for his blocking ability, Wick flashed legitimate offensive potential through OTAs and minicamp. He has taken second-team reps through most of training camp and hauled in a touchdown in Saturday's mock game after Ebron's injury.

If he's thrust into further action, Wick said he'll be ready to go.

"I don't know anything about what's going on with [Ebron], but if I have to play a little more that's fine."

After Mulligan and Wick, the Lions have veteran Orson Charles and undrafted rookies Adam Fuehne and Ben McCord on the depth chart at tight end.

Charles broke into the NFL in 2012 as a highly-touted tight end prospect with the Cincinnati Bengals. But he never lived up to the expectations and was later moved to fullback. He hasn't played a down in the NFL since 2013.

Fuehne and McCord are relative unknowns, the former out of Eastern Illinois, the latter out of Central Michigan. For what it's worth, the trio of Fuehne, McCord and Wick received high marks from Mulligan, a player who has seen his fair share of rookies in his many stops around the league.

"They're a great group of men. They work really hard and they never say never. They do whatever is asked of them, they're constantly getting better, I think it's a great group. They're big, they're tall, they're lengthy, they're athletic - I mean there's not much more you can ask for tight ends," said Mulligan.

Should the Lions look for reinforcements outside the organization, they are likely to consider signing a free agent. The market is thin, obviously, limited in potential to the likes of Owen Daniels and Andrew Quarless.

Daniels is coming off a 500-yard season with the Broncos (just about matching Ebron in that department), but will be 34 years old in November and dealt with knee troubles in 2015. And Quarless, though much younger, has a troubling injury history of his own.

There are reasons, of course, both of them remain unsigned.

The Lions are best-served by hoping against hope that Ebron's injury doesn't cost him significant playing time. They are already decimated at the tight end position and the mercenaries within consist of cast-offs and unknowns. The free agent market doesn't present much of a lifeline, either, unless the Lions can convince Daniels to play another season and coax prime-age production out of his 34-year-old body.

This was supposed to be Ebron's season.

Boy, it's anyone's now.

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