Branch and Mays Are Active. Green Bay Is Still a Problem.

The Lions activated both Brian Branch and Cade Mays ahead of Sunday's game against the Packers, per the team's official move. Branch returning to the secondary is real help — he and Chuck Clark have been the backbone of a defense held together with tape all season. Mays back at center stabilizes an offensive line that needed it. These are good things.

The linebacker room, though, is what it is going into Green Bay. Joe Bachie is the only linebacker who has logged meaningful snaps, and he has been a liability all year — four tackles in seven games is not a starter's production by any reasonable measure. Devin White, signed specifically to shore up that rotation, is on injured reserve. Behind Bachie, Derrick Barnes and Amen Ogbongbemiga are on the depth chart but have not played. Green Bay will find that hole if it exists, because Green Bay always does.

The Packers do get some injury news of their own — linebacker Zaire Franklin is out for this one, which is a small break for Detroit's offense. But the Lions' defensive problem is structural, not matchup-specific. Branch's return helps the secondary. Nobody is fixing the linebacker situation before kickoff.