Drew Stanton is out at least four weeks with a sprained right thumb, but don't expect the Lions to sign Daunte Culpepper as his replacement.

Lions coach Rod Marinelli said the team planned to "work some guys out today" with the hopes of signing a fourth quarterback, perhaps in time for Saturday's third exhibition game against the Browns. No word yet on who's coming in for workouts, but offensive coordinator Jim Colletto hinted it wouldn't be Culpepper, who's out of work and contacted the Lions last month. Instead, Colletto indicted the Lions are looking for a practice-squad guy to play against Buffalo next week and save the wear and tear on Jon Kitna and Dan Orlovsky's arms once the regular season begins.

Stanton is in a cast for at least the next two weeks and probably a month. Dean Kleinschmidt, the Lions' coordinator of athletic medicine, said Stanton's injury — a ligament sprain — will be re-evaluated in two weeks. At that point, the cast will come off but a new one "in all likelihood" will be put back on.

After missing all of last season following minor knee surgery, the Lions don't want Stanton to waste another season on injured reserve. He probably won't be back until the bye week Sept. 28, but that's just three games missed so there's no need to bring in a veteran. If the injury doesn't heal as expected or if something happens to Kitna or Orlovsky, that could change. For now though, the Lions aren't panicking.

As for what this means to Stanton, the shame is that he won't play in two preseason games he otherwise would have seen plenty of work in. That's big development time missed, but nothing that changes the Lions' plans. Orlovsky was going to be Kitna's backup this year anyway, with Stanton on deck in 2009. It will, however, make evaluating Stanton's future harder for the front office, which has to decide how to supplement the quarterback position next year, with a veteran journeyman or a rookie draft pick.

Beyond that, Stanton will have to answer some durability questions before he's handed the keys to the team. Along with his thumb injury and last year's knee surgery, Stanton had knee, shoulder and thumb injuries and two concussions at Michigan State. He said he doesn't feel snake-bitten.

"I don't view it as that at all," Stanton said. "I think (my thumb sprain is) one of those things that it was out of my control and it was just one of the things that happens throughout the course of practice or a game. So put a cast on it and try to let it heal, and it's going to heal as fast as my body will allow it to."