Well, we are finally here. It’s Sunday morning, week 18. Tonight, the Minnesota Vikings will play the Detroit Lions. Not only is the NFC North crown on the line, but so is the NFC’s No. 1 seed in the 2024-25 NFL Playoffs, which comes with a 1st round bye and homefield advantage through the NFC Championship Game.
Both the Vikings and Lions have dealt with major injuries throughout the course of this season. Minnesota went without TE TJ Hockenson, LB Blake Cashman and WR Jordan Addison, at different points during the season. They also lost blossoming left tackle, Christian Darrisaw, to a season-ending knee injury back in week 8.
Detroit Lions getting healthier vs Minnesota Vikings
In week 18, though, it appears the Detroit Lions are finally getting healthier. On Saturday, they activated WR Kalif Raymond (foot) and LB Alex Anzalone (broken arm), neither of which has played since November.
How big is this for the Lions? No doubt there is a sigh of relief to have Anzalone back on defense. As you may have noticed above, Detroit has been playing with a replacement crew on defense, for most of the 2nd half of this season.
If nothing else, Anzalone should improve the Lions middle-of-the-field defense against the pass (think Blake Cashman for the Vikings), and help corral Minnesota Vikings running backs in a way Detroit hasn’t been able to for over a month.
What are Lions getting back with Alex Anzalone and Kalif Raymond?
In 9 games this season, Alex Anzalone has 56 tackles and 4 passes defended, to go alone with one sack. But the last two seasons (2022, 2023), he combined for 254 tackles, 12 passes defended and 4.5 sacks. In 2023, Anzalone’s 129 tackles was the most on the Lions defense by 34 tackles. The closest to him was Jack Campbell, who had 95 tackles last season.
Wide receiver Kalif Raymond has 204 yards receiving and two receiving touchdowns (16 receptions). He is not a starter, but did catch 95 passes for 1193 yards between the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
