NFL Injuries Piling Up In NFL Preseason

This NFL Preseason has been nothing short of devastating for certain teams. Just when optimism begins to form around it, the injury bug once again rears its ugly head. Injuries have been a major theme this year in the NFL as the young season already has some of the stars already banged up before the games that count even begin.

Let’s look at notable injuries this preseason.

The Cardinals were fortunate enough to not have many significant injuries to their team this preseason. The biggest injury, however, came to corner Mike Jenkins who left the third preseason game with an apparent severe right knee injury. While it’s not clear exactly what the timetable is, it is more than likely that Jenkins will miss all of the 2016 season.

The Falcons lost their first round pick, safety Keanu Neal, to an apparent knee injury. Neal had it scoped and according to an Adam Schefter tweet featured on rotoworld.com, he “seems certain to miss week 1 and week 2, but Neal should be back sometime in September.”

All seemed to be looking up for the Ravens as they had not had a starter get injured during the season. Then during the week three preseason, the Ravens lost their starting tight end Benjamin Watson to an apparent Achilles injury on the first offensive play that the Ravens played.

Coach John Harbaugh had this to say about Watson: “Ben, looks like it could be an Achilles. That’s just unfortunate for him. That’s the first play of the game. That could happen at practice or anytime.”

Where do I begin with the Bills? The Buffalo Bills have many key players who are injured this season. Perhaps none more devastating than losing their first two 2016 draft picks Shaq Lawson (shoulder) until around October and Reggie Ragland (knee) for the season. The Bills have had an unfortunate series of injuries this season.

The Panthers have only one player out for the season, that’s DB Trenton Robinson.

The Bears have lost a few players due to injury. However, backup QB Conner Shaw just suffered a major ankle injury in the last preseason game that will more than likely keep him out of the 2016 season. Tracy Porter also was ruled out the Bears’ preseason game because of a concussion.

The Bengals lost fourth-rounder Andrew Billings for the entire 2016 season. Also, Tyler Eifert is expected to miss a few games (four to six weeks).

Luckily for the Browns, there were no major injuries in the preseason. However, they did rule out DE Desmond Bryant for the 2016 season.

Tony Romo also was ruled out for the remainder of the season with a broken back. This leaves rookie Dak Prescott to handle the starting duties.

The Colts already were dealing with injuries. They lost CB Vontae Davis for around a month and played the third preseason game without six of their corners. Just when it looked as though they were getting with injuries, they thought that starting LG Jack Mewhort was out for the season. Fortunately, Mewhort will only miss 2-4 weeks. CB Darius Butler also left Saturday’s game with an apparent ankle injury.

The Chargers’ punter Mike Scifres was forced to leave the third preseason game with a knee injury.

Redskins’ OLB Ryan Kerrigan was forced to leave the Redskin’s Friday night game against the Bills will a groin injury.

JP Finlay of CSN Mid Atlantic said, “Word Friday night was that Kerrigan’s injury was minor, though the Redskins outside linebacker is slated for an MRI exam Saturday on the groin.”

The Saints had a few players suffer injuries. LT Terron Armstead left the game and so did TE Michael Hoomanawanui.

Likewise, Steelers DE Cam Hayward was carted off with ice on his right ankle, RT Marcus Gilbert had an elbow injury and safety Shamarko Thomas suffered a groin injury as well.

Bengals’ WR A.J. Green hobbled off the field on Sunday against the Jaguars with an injured knee. Green’s injury was not serious.

As you can see, injuries are all over the NFL. Hopefully, teams can either avoid the injury bug altogether or have very good depth.

[Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images]