To win the NFL Super Bowl you need to be both good and lucky. The game is violent and players always end up hurt. And many of those injuries are significant enough to alter the fortunes of the entire team.
Ryan Fitazpatrick – NFL Washington Football Team QB
Washington was a playoff team last season with a revolving door at quarterback. Three different QBs made starts for WFT during the regular season, and a fourth started their playoff game against the Bucs.
Ryan Fitzpatrick was supposed to help stabilize the position. Instead, he’s now on injured reserve with a partial dislocation of his right hip.
The move to the IR ensures that he’ll miss at least the next three games, but in all likelihood, the injury will keep him sidelined from six to eight weeks.
Taylor Heinicke, who started that playoff game against Tampa Bay, will now start for Washington going forward. Curiously, markets haven’t reacted heavily to the change. Washington carried early preseason odds for this game as three-point favorites, the same price currently offered on the BetUS Sportsbook’s NFL Odds.
Jeffrey Okudah – NFL Lions CB
The third overall pick in the 2020 draft is now done for the season in 2021. Lions cornerback Jeffrey Okudah suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the fourth quarter against San Francisco, and he’s been placed on injured reserve.
One of the prizes of the 2020 draft class, Okudah struggled as a rookie. He played in just nine games, losing time to hamstring and shoulder injuries before groin surgery ended his season in early December. He was looking for 2021 to be a season of redemption, but that will now have to wait at least one more year.
Jason Verrett – NFL 49ers CB
It’s hard not to think “here we go again” if you’re a 49ers player or fan. So much of last season was disrupted by injuries, and now after just one week, the team has lost cornerback Jason Verrett for the season with a torn right ACL.
Verrett is no stranger to season-ending injuries. He tore his left ACL in 2016 and his right Achilles tendon in 2018. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said of his veteran cornerback, “If anybody can get through stuff like this, no matter how many times it’s happened, it’s Jason.”
Raheem Mostert – NFL 49ers RB
Running back Raheem Mostert carried the ball twice on Sunday before leaving the game with what is being described as “chipped cartilage” in his knee. He’s been placed on injured reserve and is expected to miss up to eight weeks for the 49ers.
A high ankle sprain nagged Mostert for much of 2020 and he ended up missing eight games last season.
Rookie Elijah Mitchell was the first off the bench when Mostert went down on Sunday and he ran for 104 yards on 19 carries.
Mekhi Becton – Jets OT
One of the most important people in the development of new Jets quarterback Zach Wilson is New York’s top pick in NFL 2020, left tackle Mekhi Becton. He, however, will miss four to six weeks after dislocating his right knee cap in the Jets loss to Carolina in Week 1.
Becton is expected to have surgery to repair damage to the cartilage in the knee that stems from the dislocation.
In Becton’s absence the Jets will move George Fant from right tackle to left tackle, and Morgan Moses will start at right tackle.
On Sunday the Jets offensive line allowed six sacks of Wilson.
Jerry Jeudy – NFL Broncos WR
Denver is going to be without second-year wide receiver Jerry Jeudy for between four and six weeks, but considering how the injury looked at the time that it happened against the Giants, that’s good news.
Watching it live, it looked like Jeudy at a minimum dislocated his ankle.
Instead he’s been diagnosed with a high ankle sprain, which is serious, but not season-ending. The timeline of four to six weeks assumes the injury will heal on time, and it won’t cause lingering issues, which is always a possibility with sprains like these.
Michael Gallup – Cowboys WR
The Cowboys have placed Michael Gallup on injured reserve because of a calf injury he suffered last Thursday against the Buccaneers. The roster move means that Gallup can’t return to the lineup until Week 5 against the Giants.
Both Amari Cooper and Ceedee Lamb had big nights against the Bucs, but the deep threat of Gallup helps to open things up for them, and his absence will be felt. The Cowboys travel to Los Angeles Sunday to take on the Chargers. Earlier lines had Dallas as low as 1½-point road underdogs, which has since climbed to three-points at the BetUS Sportsbook’s NFL point spread odds.
