Brandon Cisse expects to be in the Green Bay Packers lineup on Sunday despite the shoulder and neck injury that forced him out of last week’s win over the Dallas Cowboys. The rookie cornerback said on Thursday that he is rehabbing and doing good, and he expects to take his usual place at Ford Field.
That matters because Cisse has become a major part of the Packers defense in a short time. He has logged 370 defensive snaps across six games, about 88 percent of Green Bay’s defensive work in that stretch, while also contributing on special teams. He also has 25 combined tackles, a tackle for loss, four pass breakups, two quarterback hits, 1.5 sacks and an interception, production that has helped make his availability a real issue heading into a matchup with a Detroit offense averaging nearly 394 yards per game.
The concern is not whether Cisse can suit up. It is how much of himself Green Bay will get if he does. The Packers listed him as a limited participant in practice throughout the week after he left the Dallas game with roughly eight minutes remaining when a stinger left his arm numb. Cisse said he needed patience while feeling returned to his fingers and shoulder, and that injury comes on top of neck, shoulder and hip issues that have already interrupted half of his starts this season.
By the numbers, this is not a player the Packers can easily replace. Pro Football Network has Cisse at 73.2 through six weeks and ranks him 63rd among cornerbacks league-wide, while Keisean Nixon is 18th. That helps explain why Green Bay is pressing to have Cisse available against a Detroit team that enters as a three-point home favorite coming off a bye, with the over-under set around 53.5 points.
For now, the simplest answer is the one Cisse gave on Thursday: he expects to play. What remains unsettled is whether he can handle his usual workload or whether Green Bay has to manage him snap by snap once the game starts.
