The NFL has finished preseason week 2 and the only constants are that rather meaningless games are being played and players continued to be injured. Since Part I of my preseason injury analysis, 29 players have gone down with some type of significant injury. While it is difficult to gauge the exact players due to dates and delayed reporting by teams, there is still a sizable amount of players placed on injured reserve or expected to miss significant time. Please be aware, there are some players that have been waived with injury settlements that have either signed with a new team or they are in the process and will alter the numbers when final count is made at the end of preseason.
Once again, the Bills escape the injury bug with major role players. The only player to note is rookie TE Jason Croom was placed on IR with an ankle injury. Reports are scarce on the severity of injury, leading to the possibility that he may get an injury settlement at a later date. Previously, I had highlighted the fact that the New England Patriots missed the injury bug up to that point. Within a day of publication, rookie DE Derek Rivers went down for the season with an ACL tear and sprained LCL. This occurred during a joint practice with the Texans on kickoff coverage. Rivers was the Patriots top pick of this most recent draft in the 3rd round.
To add to the ever increasing ACL tear total, the current number is 21, adding 3 from last time. With the previously mentioned Rivers; also suffering torn ACL’s were LB Tank Carder of the Browns, and LT George Fant of the Seahawks. All of these tears occurred during the 2nd preseason game with the exception of Rivers who was injured during a full speed drill during practice. According to the ACL Recovery Club on Twitter, there are on average of 50 ACL tears/season. Already through 2 preseason games, the NFL is rapidly approaching the halfway mark.
While there is a smaller sample size with this article compared to the previous article, there still have been several other serious injuries. Shawn Williams of the Bengals dislocated his elbow and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks. Danny Shelton of the Browns sprained his knee and is expected to be out 3-6 weeks. Keeon Johnson of the Giants fractured his foot, requiring surgery, landing on IR. The rest of the injuries consisted of generalized ankle, hamstring, and unknown injuries. Depending on the value the team has placed on that particular player will determine whether he gets released or spends the season on IR. To make special note, I am not including Odell Beckham in this due the minor ankle injury he sustained in Monday nights game against the Browns. He is on track to possibly return Week 1 and has not reported any significant damage.
Thankfully, there are not any superstars on this most recent list. Unfortunately, there are some significant role players that did dent that particular’s team depth. I expect that several role players to go down, continue to see major injuries occur, and several teams fortunes change based on these outcomes. Of the teams hurt the most of the past week, the Browns and Giants lead the way with 4 players followed by the Seahawks, Colts, Buccaneers, and Bengals with 2. Continue to follow this blog for updates and new articles. If you have any specific injuries or players you would like me to analyze, please leave a comment, message me via Twitter at @kyletrimble88 or e-mail me at kyletrimble88@gmail.com.
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