Drew Stanton will miss the rest of the preseason and start of the regular season with a sprained ligament in his right thumb.

Stanton suffered the injury in practice Thursday when he banged his hand on a teammate's shoulder following through on a pass. It's a significant setback for the third-string quarterback, who spent all of last season on injured reserve after knee surgery and will not get any more live repetitions this fall. He was competing with Dan Orlvosky for the No. 2 job behind Jon Kitna.

Dean Kleinschmidt, the Lions' coordinator of athletic medicine, said Stanton will not need surgery but will in a cast for the next four weeks. He'll be re-evaluated after two weeks, but probably will not be ready for game action until after the Sept. 28 bye.

Tight end Dan Campbell (hamstring), defensive tackle Cory Redding (strained rib-cage muscle) and kicker Jason Hanson (hip flexor) also will miss Saturday's preseason game against the Browns. Safety Daniel Bullocks' status is undetermined after experienced pain his surgically-repaired knee. Kleinschmidt said Bullocks' pain was normal a year removed from ACL surgery.