Week 13 brought quite a few devastating injuries, including potential season-ending injuries for a few starting quarterbacks. Let’s jump into the NFL Injury Report Week 14 for quarterbacks.
Matthew Stafford Injury Update
We have to start off the NFL Injury Report Week 14 with one of the biggest upsets of the week.
Matthew Stafford has suffered a spinal cord contusion, which is likely a season-ending injury. A spinal cord contusion is basically a bruise to the spinal cord, the cord of nerve cells in your spine that carries messages between your brain and body. Your spinal cord is responsible for voluntary muscle movements, sensations like touch, pressure and pain, digestion, urination, heart rate, breathing and blood pressure.
It’s pretty much the most important part of our bodies, apart from our brains, and spinal cord injuries can cause paralysis and other significant impairments.
So when Stafford reported numbness in both legs after a suspected neck injury, the medical staff was rightfully concerned.
But what about his career? The risk of permanent damage that could cause lifelong impairments is the reason why Stafford will likely be sidelined for the remainder of the season. It is now the Rams medical staff’s job to determine the WHY this happened, in order to decide if surgery is required.
This injury could have occurred due to a problem with the cervical vertebrae or due to narrowing of the spinal canal, in which decompression surgery or a cervical fusion could potentially be warranted.
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After being a Pro Bowler and a Super Bowl Champion, it will be up to Stafford to decide if he wants to continue to play with the risk of further injury, or to retire.
Trevor Lawrence Injury Update
Trevor Lawrence suffered what looked to be a pretty gruesome lower body injury when his hip, leg and foot stayed in one position and his body was tackled in a completely different direction. He rolled around in pain clutching his left leg, but was able to walk off of the field with trainers.
Lawrence was able to return to the game, and head coach Doug Pederson gave an update on Monday that Lawrence will be having an MRI to determine the extent of his injuries.
Losing Lawrence would be despairing for the Jaguars, with Lawrence throwing for 17 touchdowns this season, with a 65.6 completion percentage and a passer rating of 92.8. But considering that he was able to play through the pain, things are looking good for him returning to play.
Lamar Jackson Injury Update
In the game against the Broncos, Lamar Jackson suffered a left knee injury when he was sacked and his left knee was driven into the ground in a flexed position.
He was able to walk to the locker room under his own power. Frequently, when knee injuries occur due to significant force to the lower part of the knee where it is driven backwards, the PCL or posterior cruciate ligament, can be affected.
On Tuesday afternoon, it was confirmed that Lamar Jackson has been diagnosed with a sprained PCL. It is likely to be a grade one sprain, as he is expected to be sidelined for one to three weeks according to reports.
Tua Tagovailoa Injury Update
Tua Tagovailoa entered the game Sunday with an ankle injury, only to aggravate it in the final minutes of the loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Head coach Mike McDaniel called the initial injury updates “not significant”.
Jimmy Garoppolo Injury Update
Arguably the second biggest upset of the NFL Injury Report Week 14 is the potential loss of Jimmy Garoppolo for the 49ers.
Jimmy Garoppolo sustained a significant foot injury on Sunday’s game against Maimi. Initial reports thought it could be a season-ending injury, possibly a lisfranc fracture. A Lisfranc injury occurs when there are either broken bones or torn ligaments in the midfoot area. The severity of this injury can vary widely depending on how many bones and joints of the foot have been affected, but usually, surgery is required.
It is not easy to diagnose due to the complexity of the foot, so further investigation into the injury is warranted to determine the extent of the injury and whether or not this will indeed end his season.
The 49ers lost starting quarterback Trey Lance, the number three pick in the 2021 NFL draft, due to a broken ankle suffered in Week 2 that required surgery. Kyle Shanahan has shut down any optimism as to Lance returning to play any time soon, so the 49ers were left to sign 13-year veteran quarterback Josh Johnson off of the Denver Broncos practice squad.
More News on NFL Injury Report Week 14
Carson Wentz is still on IR after a finger injury left Taylor Heinicke as the new quarterback for the Washington Commanders. Head coach Ron Rivera shut down any optimism of Wentz becoming the starting quarterback after he is cleared to play, stating that “When Carson’s activated, he’ll be the primary backup and we’ll go from there”.
This sort of decisive head coaching decision-making should be emulated by Bill Belichick of the Patriots who has been publicly questioned about continuing to start quarterback Mac Jones after an impressive performance by fan favorite, Bailey Zappe.
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