HOUSTON -- Mike Daniels didn’t make the trip to Texas this week, a surprise development after the Lions’ newest defensive tackle said he expected to practice with the Texans.

Coach Matt Patricia has confirmed Daniels’ prolonged absence is due to the foot injury he sustained in Green Bay last season. He underwent surgery and missed six games, then didn’t do much in the Packers’ offseason program this year. But he did tell reporters he expected to be a full participant in training camp.

Then he was let go on the eve of camp, which sparked some questions about whether the foot remained a concern. Thirteen teams called Daniels within an hour of his release, though, and there seemed to be a competitive market for his services.

He chose the Lions over a dozen other teams because he wanted to play for Matt Patricia, whom he called a defensive genius. Of course, the Lions also gave him a one-year contract worth $8.1 million that was almost fully guaranteed.

Now 20 days later, he’s still not practicing.

As a seven-year veteran who made a Pro Bowl in his last healthy season, no one in Allen Park is panicking. But with so many moving pieces up front, and so many key guys missing so much time -- Trey Flowers, Snacks Harrison and Da’Shawn Hand have also missed huge chunks of camp -- there is still so much work to be done before the season opener on Sept. 8 against Arizona.

“From the scheme standpoint, we’ll work through that as we go,” Patricia said. "Working with the doctors that he had up in Green Bay, it’s truly a day by day thing, and we’re just trying to take it that way. I think it’s a little bit different when you’re with somebody at the start of a process like that and you kind of have a daily or weekly catalog as you go through there. This is for us, diving into the middle of something and making sure we’re smart with it. That’s really what we’re trying to do is just be smart with the whole situation as we go forward.”

The good news is Flowers (shoulder) returned to practice last week, while Harrison (conditioning) was activated from the non-football injury list on Thursday. He didn’t do much at practice, though, and didn’t even appear to be in pads. He still has a long way to go, but certainly seems headed in the right direction.