Lions running back Kevin Smith is out for the foreseeable future, as he is going to have surgery on one of his thumbs today. It's not clear what exactly is wrong with his thumb, but he injured it this past Sunday against the Bills and fullback Jerome Felton described the injury by saying, "It was just hanging down, it looked like the ligament -- like nothing was holding it."
Smith has been spotting Jahvid Best ever since he returned to action after missing the first few weeks of action in order to continue recovering from a torn ACL. Smith has provided a nice spark to the Lions' offense, but this week Detroit will have to turn to Maurice Morris and Aaron Brown to back up Best. Morris has been playing mostly special teams the last few weeks and Brown hasn't even been active since he broke a bone in his hand back in September.
Other Lions banged up are Best, Calvin Johnson, Tony Scheffler, Corey Williams, Cliff Avril and DeAndre Levy. All of these players missed practice on Wednesday, as well as Matthew Stafford and Jason Hanson, who are out indefinitely. The only player whose status is up in the air for Sunday is Avril, as the other players (not counting Stafford and Hanson) are expected to play against the Dallas Cowboys.