“A very hard season to assess” what Kenny Golladay can do

[Roary]

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Lions interim head coach Darrell Bevell made an unsurprising announcement to reporters on Thursday.

Bevell announced wide receiver Kenny Golladay will not play against the Vikings in Week 17. Golladay last played in Week 8 and has been out since injuring his hip in that contest.

Golladay also missed the first two games of the year with a hamstring injury, so the announcement means he’ll have played just five games this season. That’s a disappointment for a player that Bevell was talking about as a top-tier wideout coming into the final year of his rookie deal and Bevell said it makes it hard to project Golladay’s future.

“It’s a very hard season to assess what he was able to do,” Bevell said, via Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com. “He wasn’t about to be out there enough for us this year to really, I think, make those steps that I was hoping that he’d be able to make. So right now, obviously he’s not there. Does he have the ability to be there? I think he does, and obviously that’s what we’re looking for from him. But the most important thing for him is to get healthy, get his body right and then be able to handle the rigors of a 16-game plus season.”

Bevell’s unlikely to have a say in where things go for Golladay and the Lions from here, but it will be one of the biggest issues for the incoming administration to address once it is in place this offseason.