Pro Football Doc shares his analysis of the key injuries from NFL Week 15.
Patrick Mahomes - ACL
Mahomes suffered a torn ACL in the Chiefs loss to the Chargers. The Chiefs confirmed the injury on Sunday.
Patrick Mahomes, glass half full, half empty. Half empty: there’s an ACL plus something to be determined with the LCL. Glass half full: it is a lot easier to play quarterback than edge rusher. Now, Patrick Mahomes is mobile, etc. I’m not suggesting that he’s Philip Rivers. However, it is easier to play the position of quarterback than cornerback, quarterback than rush end, having to get around the edge, right? And this is why you can have quarterbacks like Tom Brady play at the age of 45. It’s just different. You can’t imagine a Micah Parsons playing at the age of 40, much less 45. It’s just different demands.
Micah Parsons - ACL
Parsons suffered a torn ACL vs. the Broncos. The Packers confirmed the injury on Monday.
The bad news for Micah Parsons is that as a rush end, it is much more difficult to return and be 100%. It’s a pretty tight timeline for the start of the season, and it would not be surprising if a PUP stint is ahead of him.
Davante Adams - Hamstring
Adams left the Rams game late in the 4th quarter after aggravating his hamstring injury and did no return.
The Thursday game makes it easy — he’s not playing. I suppose if somehow it were just a cramp like Puka had instead of an actual injury, but the way he pulled up, it’s not. That’s the hazard of playing through an injury: the risk of re-injury. Thursday’s big game in Seattle isn’t happening for him. Look, at this point for the Rams, if you told me he’d be 100% for the first playoff game, I’d say take it. You want that more than what he’s doing now. And hopefully the Rams get a bye, and hopefully Week 18 is a rest week for them, with or without the bye. Obviously this is the game you’d want Davante Adams for, but if he’s not available, then so be it. I don’t know if the Rams play Week 17 or 18, but if you’re a Rams fan, the ship has sailed for this Thursday — just take him healthy for the first playoff game, and hopefully even healthier after a first-round bye.
Christian Watson - SC Joint
Watson suffered a chest/shoulder injury on Sunday and was transported to a Denver hospital as a precaution.
An SC joint injury makes sense for a CT scan. You can get an MRI, but a CT scan is quicker. You’re looking at the relationship of the bone and the SC joint, given the way it went down. It’s not a Tyreek Hill situation, or some of the other recent examples, but he’s not playing Saturday.
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