It’s been a bad year for injuries, and unfortunately we’ve already heard reports of significant ones to guys like O.J. Howard and Austin Ekeler this Sunday. Here’s the latest batch of updates as Week 4 winds down:
- Browns running back Nick Chubb got rolled up on in scary fashion, with his knee twisting under a Cowboys defender. Fortunately it looks like Cleveland dodged a bullet, as a source told Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com that the team is “cautiously optimistic” he didn’t suffer a torn ACL. He’ll have an MRI on Monday to tell the full story, but it looks like he isn’t going to be done for the year.
- Chubb wasn’t the only one to go down with a knee injury in the same game. Cowboys center Joe Looney also hurt his knee and was quickly ruled out, which had Dallas fans holding their breath. Like with Chubb however it appears it could’ve been worse, as Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News tweets that there’s “hope the injury is not of season-ending variety.” Dallas is already banged up on the offensive line, and starting right tackle La’el Collins was just ruled out for the year due to hip surgery, so this would be a big loss. Rookie fourth-round pick Tyler Biadasz filled in after Looney got hurt.
- Sam Darnold hurt his shoulder early in the Jets’ Thursday Night Football game, and although he was able to return to the loss to the Broncos and keep playing, it appears he isn’t out of the woods yet. Darnold has a sprained AC joint in his shoulder and is in danger of missing New York’s Week 5 game against the Cardinals, according to Rich Cimini of ESPN.com. “We just need to make sure we lay everything out and kind of see where we go from here, what’s best for him, not just next week but long term,” head coach Adam Gase explained. Darnold has struggled mightily in his third season, and considering this is clearly the Jets’ easiest game for the foreseeable future, it would be great if he could play. If he’s unable to go, veteran Joe Flacco would draw the spot start.
- Broncos tight end Noah Fant also went down on Thursday night, suffering an ankle injury. Although he was carte to the locker room it fortunately isn’t a season-ending broken ankle or anything of the sort. That being said he will be week to week and is expected to miss Denver’s Week 5 game against the Patriots, a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). You’re probably well aware of the Broncos’ injury woes this season, as players have been going down left and right. At 1-3 and without practically half of their starting lineup, it’s looking like a lost season for Denver. The 20th overall pick of last year’s draft had been playing well, with 19 catches for 219 yards and two scores through three and a half games before going down.
I saw the Nick Chubb injury this afternoon. It looked more like an ankle injury and a torn ACL didn’t look like it was in the realm of possibility. If it’s a knee injury, it’s probably just a sprain. I hope so anyway. Break isn’t out of the possibility either. He walked off the field.
Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking. I agree that it looked more like an ankle or quad injury than something knee-related.
There’s obviously a chance it could still be significant, but I’m hoping that’s not the case. And I wouldn’t put it past him to walk off the field even after tearing an ACL, but he looked to be okay.
True. Chubb is the kind of guy who would walk off the field with that kind of injury. But torn ACLs can be diagnosed on the field, or they would at least have an advanced notice of that possibility. It didn’t seem like thats what they were looking at.
Sounds like the Darnold thing is just a way of benching him this week without saying we are benching him
Yeh, he definitely doesn’t look like ‘the answer’ to their QB woes.
True, but it was the coach that saw his QB get hurt & then decided to have him pass around 50 times.
I think you might be reading too far into it… Darnold did stay in the game after getting hurt on Thursday so it doesn’t seem like it’s about being benched
Chubb walked off the field with barely a limp. I think he’ll be fine. It’s possible he could miss next week’s game, but I think that’ll be the extent of it.
I’m not saying I believe he tore his ACL. If theoretically he did, however, you can still walk on those, if you’re careful. It’s a stabalizing ligament. It’s bends, twists and cuts that become a problem.
They’re pretty good about identifying those on-field now though. They’d probably be more pessimistic if they thought it was torn.
Fant’s stats are tremendously misleading. He has numerous drops, particularly on third down, thus he has cost his team plenty by not allowing them to extend drives.