Injuries have been a big storyline for the NFL and training camp has not even made it to the first full week of the preseason games. Already we’ve seen several notable players who will miss the entire season, or at the very least significant time.
This theme continued on Tuesday in the NFL with four noteworthy injuries occurring.
Starting with the Philadelphia Eagles and WR Arrelious Benn. After losing Jeremy Maclin for the season with an ACL tear, the Eagles didn’t get any help from Riley Cooper with the news of his off-the-field-incident that has caused major distractions. Now add to the list another Philadelphia wide receiver who is out for the season, as Benn tore his ACL in practice. The Eagles almost can’t afford to cut Cooper even if they wanted to. They are simply too thin at the position currently.
Philadelphia head coach Chip Kelly is certainly being tested early on in his NFL coaching career, trying to simply get to the first preseason game with a team as healthy as he can.
The same can now be said for the Atlanta Falcons. Two players were injured on Tuesday. LB Sean Weatherspoon and RT Mike Johnson both went down in practice.
For Weatherspoon, it was a dislocated finger, and the length of time that he will be out is not known, as the team lists him out indefinitely. The Falcons were practicing with the Cincinnati Bengals on Tuesday in preparation for the two teams playing in Week 1 of the preseason on Thursday.
Johnson’s injury is a bit more serious, with reports indicating that the right tackle has a broken right leg. He also injured the leg in practice with the Bengals. Johnson is likely to have surgery. This means that the offensive line will need to be shifted around over the coming weeks to compensate for the injury.
Going out West to the San Diego Chargers, WR Danario Alexander tore his ACL and is considered to be out for the 2013 regular season – the injury occurred during Tuesday’s practice. Alexander was a mid-season pickup for San Diego last season.
With Alexander out, WR Robert Meachem, who came over from New Orleans, is expected to see more playing time.