Sam Shields making progress, hopes to play against Detroit

Green Bay—Packers cornerback Sam Shields said he was able to move around well in practice Wednesday and felt that his injured shoulder was improving enough that he could play Sunday against Detroit.

Shields suffered a shoulder sprain in the first quarter of the Denver game two weeks ago and did not play against Carolina.

Practice Wednesday was not conducted in pads, but Shields said progress is being made.

"I feel pretty good today," Shields said. "I did a lot of moving. Things I thought I wasn't able to do, I was able to do it, going up and getting the ball and things like that. Everything felt good. But I'm still taking it one day at a time."

The next step for Shields will be to practice in pads Thursday and see how the shoulder responds to being banged around a little. A bigger concern than that, however, appears to be his ability to reach out or extend upward with his arm.

He said that if he were able to play against Detroit, he would wear a brace on his shoulder to help keep it from opening too far and causing a recurrence of the injury. His former teammate, Tramon Williams, was able to play through almost an entire season with a harness.

"It's just something to protect it," Shields said. "Just like an ankle brace or a knee brace."

Shields said it's been difficult to watch the last two games knowing he could have helped cover some of the opposition's receivers and contributed to a better performance. From the sideline he said he was able to get a feel for some of the things that have been going wrong, and he doesn't think the solution is that difficult.
"It's just everybody has to get on the same page," Shields said. "That's just any sport. Communication, being on the same page, doing what you're supposed to do, being in the right spot. It wasn't nothing big. A lot of minor things we can correct and that's what we're doing this week.


(jsonline.com)