Pro Football Doc, Dr. David Chao, breaks down some injuries from NFL Week 7 in today's Pro Football Doc Podcast. You can watch the entire episode below.
Bryce Young - Ankle
Bryce Young is said to have a high ankle sprain. Bryce Young yesterday, we made a point of calling it an inversion slash high ankle sprain. Why? If you look at the video we posted yesterday, his Achilles gets stepped on and the base of his foot is not planted in the grass.
Right. His foot is everted. Less stress on the syndesmotic ligament. This is not your classic, “oh my gosh, four to six week or more” high ankle sprain.
You know who’s got a real high ankle sprain? Jake Matthews, left tackle for Atlanta, who played last night, but didn’t play particularly well. And did you see that huge brace he had on? That’s a brace for a high ankle sprain and it doesn’t even always work. If he were a position player, there’s no way he would have played. If he weren’t as tough as he was, there’s no way he would have played. If he didn’t have great pride in his consecutive start streak and Atlanta needed him, he would not have played.
He has a real high ankle sprain. The bad kind we fear. Bryce Young does not.
Jayden Daniels - Hamstring
Hamstring. Good news, not his left knee. Bad news, hamstring. Marcus Mariota’s got this next game for sure.
Yeah, see, there’s no such thing as a one-week hamstring strain. Look at Lamar. Lamar is coming off the bye, and we finally expect Lamar to be there this week against Chicago. He hurt it against Kansas City in Week 4. No IR for him, and you’re not expecting IR for Daniels just like—no, I’m not expecting IR for Daniels, but I don’t see Washington rushing him back and turning a two-week hamstring strain into a six-week hamstring strain.
J.J. McCarthy - Ankle
It is normal to not be 100%, but if he were playing well and not essentially a rookie, he would have been back in there and played through already. They’re using this to say, “You’re not being benched. We’re playing Carson Wentz right now,” and that’s smart for the team because a healthy Carson Wentz is better for the team than a not 100% JJ McCarthy. I am not calling McCarthy soft, and guess what?
With the Thursday game, it’s going to be Carson Wentz again. If Carson Wentz has a bad Thursday against the Chargers, with the 10-day gap before the next one, that is JJ McCarthy’s window to return.
David Njoku - Knee
So many things go into return-to-play decisions. Trade deadline thoughts. You can’t trade an unhealthy player.
Thoughts about matchups, backups, schemes, who do we need this week? Is it worth rolling the dice on a guy who’s 90% healthy, but a 5% chance of aggravation where he misses a month? Or is it not worth rolling the dice on a guy in that situation? So, a lot goes into the decision of return to play. And we’ll see—too early to tell.
Brian Thomas - Shoulder
Not a lot of information on Brian Thomas Junior because if we don't see anything. So I, look, if it's not publicly available on video and we can't see and figure it out, and that's kind of why we didn't say anything on Brian Thomas Junior. But don't have a lot on him right now.
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