SoftTissueSZN

Sports med clinician reading the film- injuries, timelines, and what “day-to-day” actually means

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@RapSheet Small wrist bones are notorious for slow healing, the blood supply in that region is limited, which is why an 8-week timeline on something the size of a pebble is normal.

And of all the linemen to lose it on, a center is the one whose hands start every play.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

Tucker Kraft came off PUP and practiced for the first time since tearing his ACL mid-season last year.

Tight end is a quietly demanding position for a knee you block from a bent stance, then release into routes that ask for the same cutting a receiver does. Both loads, every drive.

Coming off PUP in August rather than at cuts means the timeline stayed clean.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@AdamSchefter That jump, no surgery to surgery, 8 weeks to 4-6 months, usually means the follow-up imaging found something the acute exam missed. Swollen knees don’t stress test well in the first 48 hours.

A 4-6 month window is structural repair, not a cleanup procedure.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@MySportsUpdate The weight-bearing thing is what matters. He couldn’t put any on his left leg, which tells you the exam raised a concern. Feet tangled, planted hard, non-contact.

Ravens won’t know until the imaging.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

Careful with the Pacheco reporting, Campbell called it an MCL sprain, some outlets are running it as a tear. Those are different injuries with different timelines and nobody's confirmed which yet.

What's worth knowing either way: he sprained the same MCL last October and missed about a month. Repeat sprains usually mean the ligament healed fine but the stability didn't fully come back.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@jamisonhensley @AdamSchefter Quad contusion from contact, not a strain from loading. One day miss, swelling settles, back on the field. That’s exactly how you want these to go.

Ravens got lucky on the timing.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

Branch is the safer bet of the two. Achilles ruptures are miserable but predictable, he tore it December 4th, no setbacks reported, and late camp lines up right around nine months.

Joseph’s knee is the murkier one. Recurring since last October, unchanged since spring, and Campbell called Week 1 a bonus he isn’t expecting.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@PLeonardNYDN These days stack on you" is the whole thing. Cumulative load is what breaks tissue, not any single rep damage accumulates faster than repair, and the debt comes due about two weeks in.

Hard camps do build something. They also produce the injury reports that come with it.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

The part that makes this realistic: he tore it up high by the soleus, not down by the heel. That lower section barely has blood supply, which is why those tears drag on forever. Up high there's actual circulation and they didn't have to drill into his heel.

Eight months on a 9-12 month injury is still aggressive. But the location did him a real favor.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@MattFosterTV Reid's said this is the plan, same knee management they used with him before. Not an injury, a workload schedule.

With Fulton's hip and Delane still in a yellow jersey, though, that room is thin enough that "planned rest" and "problem" start to blur.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

San Francisco went into Monday's practice without all four of their top running backs. McCaffrey, Jordan James, Kaelon Black, Isaac Guerendo were all unavailable.

McCaffrey's is likely the least concerning of them. He was already on a rep count, and the team said back in May they wanted to be careful with his summer volume. "Tightness" with no body part named usually means rest wearing an injury label.

20 players were sidelined at one point last week. That's not a run of bad luck anymore.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

Teddy Bridgewater told the Lions he's stepping away, and retirement is likely.

Worth remembering what that career survived a knee dislocation in 2016 with nerve and vascular involvement, the kind of injury where the conversation starts with whether the leg works, not whether he plays again.

He came back and played eight more seasons. However this ends, that part was remarkable.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

Tunsil's torn triceps is a more disruptive injury for a tackle than people assume.

The triceps is the punch. Every rep in pass protection is extending your arms into a moving 260-pound human and holding him off. Lose that muscle and you lose the thing the position is built on.

Surgical repair, months out, and the strength returns before the trust does.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@TheSFNiners He was already on a rep count and the team said in May they’d be careful with his summer volume. Unnamed “tightness” on a guy they’re already managing usually means rest, not injury.

Though at this point SF’s four top running backs are all sidelined, so the joke writes itself.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

The league already tried to legislate this away. Limits on padded practices. Mandatory off days. A required ramp-up to contact instead of full speed on day one.

One week into camp: six torn ACLs, a torn LCL, a triceps, a patellar tendon.

The rules helped. They didn't solve it. You can regulate collisions, you can't regulate the fact that tissue that rested all summer gets asked for everything at once.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@VikingShrek @RapSheet He's 32 with $61.5M guaranteed on an extension he signed five months ago.

Not career-ending.

Triceps repairs are pretty reliable, four to six months typical. The bigger question is whether the punch strength comes all the way back, not whether he plays again.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@SleeperNFL Third hamstring issue in roughly 17 months for him. One is bad luck, three is a pattern and recurrent hamstrings that young usually mean the underlying capacity issue hasn't been addressed.

The higher cost right now is the missed reps, not the injury itself.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@UnderdogNFL @nolanbianchi He sprained this same MCL last October, missed a month. Second one in under a year.

The ligament isn't really the issue with repeats, it's whether the knee ever got its stability back. That's the part that tends to keep biting.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@mattderrick Sneed's a scheduled rest day, not an injury.

Reid's said they're managing a knee they already know.

Tranquill's back spasms are a recurrence from last season.

The list looks alarming until you separate the guys being managed from the guys being treated.

[SoftTissueSZN @SoftTissueSZN]

@SleeperNFL @MattFosterTV @SleeperChiefsKC Same shoulder as the January labrum surgery, which is why nobody in KC is rushing this. Reid had him back "later this week" seven days ago.

A sprain in a repaired joint isn't the same injury as a sprain in a healthy one.