Wednesday was a great day for me.

After much arguing with the trainers and team physician about the amount of time I thought I needed in the cast versus their professional, much more substantial, opinion, they finally budged.

Well, sort of.

My understanding is that the higher-ups with the Lions decided that because I was put on the active roster, I needed to be ready to play, even if I couldn't throw a football. So, the cast was cut off and reconfigured so I could hand the ball off if need be in an emergency situation for the next couple of weeks.

YEAH!

What a great feeling that was, to know that I would not have to fully put that stupid thing on. My thumb feels much better and I really have no pain. It is a little stiff, but that could be attributed to the immobilization of my thumb.

And because there is no preseason left for me to play in, I will stay in the cast/splint without throwing for two more weeks. I was out at practice Wednesday trying to get as involved as possible. Being injured makes things more difficult to get accomplished, but having a coach that is adaptive in his thinking has allowed me to continue my growth as a player.

With that being said, I really would not have been getting many reps at

this point in time anyway. The first team quarterback, Jon Kitna, is the

only one who gets reps during offensive periods. I do miss out on some "scout" team periods for the offense versus our one defense, but I will work in with Dan Orlovsky once I get back.

Before I got hurt, Dan was really cool about sharing reps. I think that could be attributed to the fact that when he was in my position he did not have QBs who were willing to share time.

We are now on the schedule that we will be on for the rest of the year.

On Wednesday I arrive at the facility around 7 a.m. and eat some breakfast. Our first QB meeting goes from 7:30 until 8:20, and then off to a team meeting for 10 minutes. Any updates or announcements are made here. We then meet with the wide receivers, running backs and tight ends until about 10:30 to either install plays or watch film, this is where we install our first and second down plays. We get a half hour to get ready for practice and have a walk-through before practice for a half hour.

Practice runs from 11:36-1:36 p.m. We get time to shower and eat some food quickly and back in the meeting room to watch the practice film.

After that we are dismissed, but most guys stay to watch extra film or lift/run.

That is basically our day in a nutshell on a Wednesday, and that is pretty much mimicked on Thursday for our third down package and Friday our red zone and coming-out package, although Friday's practice is more for polish. Saturday is just a morning walk-through and Sunday we obviously play. Monday is lifting, film and possibly a light practice. Tuesday is off, but most guys head in to do some type of work.

That is our schedule for the week all the way up until the end of January.

Thanks for all your questions and comments, feel free to continue to ask questions or bring up topics you are interested in me blogging on.

Drew Stanton is a quarterback with the Detroit Lions. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at

www.drewstanton5.com

.