David Ausberry Injury: Updates on Lions TE's Finger and Recovery

Detroit Lions tight end David Ausberry has never truly caught on at the NFL level, and he suffered a broken finger before the 2015 season even began.

Continue for updates.

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Ausberry Placed on Injured Reserve

Tuesday, Aug. 11

Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press noted that the Lions “placed tight end David Ausberry on the injured reserve today and signed Jocquel Skinner,” while Adam Caplan of ESPN reported that the former USC Trojan’s “injury is a broken finger.”

Birkett also pointed out that Detroit signed tight end Jacob Maxwell on Monday to provide some depth at the position before the team’s first preseason game Thursday.     

Ausberry is a former seventh-round pick of the Oakland Raiders, and he only has 120 receiving yards in his entire career, 14 of which came last year in Oakland. He also has zero touchdown catches and didn’t figure to be a major part of the Lions offense this season even if healthy.

Brandon Pettigrew is a proven tight end with 2,898 career receiving yards, and Joseph Fauria and Eric Ebron are young playmakers who could see their involvement in the passing attack increase in 2015.

Detroit was 12th in the league in total passing offense last season behind Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate and won’t see much of a fallback without a healthy Ausberry. In fact, Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk indicated that the offense as a whole will improve if Ebron, who is entering his second season, becomes more comfortable with Stafford:

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Ebron feels the same way as Stafford and he should have plenty of opportunities to prove that things are trending upward. With Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate on the outside, defenses will probably want to make Ebron beat them until he proves he can do it on a regular basis. If he does, the Lions offense should take a step forward in coordinator Joe Lombardi’s second season.

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The Lions have the talent to be one of the most productive offenses in the NFC and likely won’t miss Ausberry for anything other than depth purposes.