The season started off with a major injury in the preseason with rookie wide receiver Clement getting hurt for 4 weeks with a dislocated hip in the last game of the preseason and it only went downhill from there. Right now we have a total of 6 starters on the injury report. Week 1 added TE Loveland. Week 2 added LG Strange and RG 78 Becton. Week 3 has now added RE Carter and LE Crosby. Let’s take a more detailed look at the injury report.
WR Clement 78 OVR: Dislocated Hip – 1 Week
Clement was slotted as the slot receiver for us but those plans were delayed for the first quarter of the season. He came in with such promise but it looks like his rookie season won’t benefit from the experience the other rookies are receiving. For the first three weeks Kirk has been taking his spot on the field.
RG Becton 78 OVR: Broken Ribs – 3 Weeks
Becton is our best and most experienced guard and has been out for a few weeks. His presence has been missed in the run game. He won’t be back for a few more weeks and has been replaced by LG Fairchild. Fairchild is a quality backup but he isn’t the same player in terms of strength.
LG Strange 77 OVR: Torn Labrum – 3 Weeks
Strange was someone who was brought over in the offseason from the Patriots to help our offensive line with a veteran presence. He got hurt in the same game as Becton which left us with no choice but to put in our rookies from last year. He has been replaced by a mix of Zeitler and Monheim.
LE Crosby 97 OVR: Abdominal Tear – 4 Weeks
Crosby is the best player on the team, he is a guy who we gave up our first round pick for and had high hopes to make the defense great. It took only 3 weeks for those hopes to come crashing down. He got hurt in the second half of week 3 after Carter got hurt and ruined any chances of getting a stop to win the game. His absence will surely be missed and he will be replaced by Re Dennis-Sutton who is literally 20 points lower in overall points. It’s safe to say, he won’t get the same results as Crosby.
LE Carter 91 OVR: Abdominal Tear – 4 Weeks
It’s ironic that our two best defensive players got hurt with the same injury in the same game. Only we have that amount of luck for it to happen. Carter is in the last year of his contract and is looking for over 25 mill a year. He was going to be our one resign but this injury makes it tough to commit to at the moment. He will be replaced by LB Lawson who is a good player but is only a 79 overall player. The defense line took a major hit with these two injuries and will make it easier for our opponents to score.
TE Loveland 85 OVR: Dislocated Ankle – 6 Weeks
Loveland is extremely weak and takes forever to heal. Other players have had worse injuries that have taken less time to heal. I don’t think that this ankle should be taking this long, it makes no sense. He had a fantastic rookie season only to be sidelined for half the year this year. He has been replaced by Albert O who has done well as his replacement.
In all we built one of the best rosters in the league and I guess Madden is cursing us for it. We will have to play next man up in these next three games but with the Giants and Cowboys both on the schedule it would have been great to at least have a healthy defensive line. The team was built so we could stop division opponents and now a third of the games we will be without the top two guys. We will see how it goes, but if this list gets longer we will update this in future.
