Texans’ Watson suffers torn ACL
Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson reportedly sustained a season-ending knee injury in practice yesterday.
The rookie suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in one of his knees and will go on injured reserve. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team hadn’t announced the injury.
His injury is the latest blow to a team that lost three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt and linebacker Whitney Mercilus to seasonending injuries on Oct. 8.
Watson had been a relative bright spot in challenging season for the Texans (34). The 12th overall pick in this year’s draft was named AFC offensive player of the month after throwing for 1,171 yards with 16 touchdowns and running for 145 yards and another score.
Watson’s 19 touchdown passes are tied for the league lead and are the most in NFL history through a player’s first seven career games. He leads all quarterbacks this season with 21 touchdowns overall and has thrown four or more touchdown passes in three games this season to join Fran Tarkenton as the only rookies in NFL history to do so.
Now with his brilliant season cut short, the Texans will look to Tom Savage to salvage this injury-plagued year and try to reach the playoffs for the third straight season. The Texans host the Colts (2-6) on Sunday and Indianapolis announced earlier Thursday that franchise quarterback Andrew Luck had been placed on injured reserve as he recovers from a shoulder problem that hasn’t allowed him to play at all this year.
The Texans will have to sign another quarterback to back up Savage. He is the only QB on the roster besides Watson.
Winston improves
Jameis Winston says his injured throwing shoulder is getting better.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback practiced again yesterday, throwing for the second straight day in preparation to face the New Orleans Saints. This is the first time Winston has thrown early in the week since spraining the AC joint in his right shoulder on Oct. 15.
The past two weeks, he’s refrained from participating in passing drills on Wednesday and Thursday before taking all of the snaps with the first-team offense on Friday.
The 2-5 Bucs have lost four in a row, with Winston playing through the injury during losses to Buffalo and Carolina the past two games.
49ers’ Garcon to IR
The San Francisco 49ers will place leading receiver Pierre Garcon on injured reserve for the remainder of the season with a broken bone in his neck.
The winless 49ers said that Garcon has a non-displaced fracture of the C5 pedicle. The typical rehabilitation time for that type of injury is eight weeks.
Garcon led the team with 40 catches for 500 yards before getting hurt last weekend in a loss at Philadelphia. Garcon had signed a five-year deal this offseason as a free agent that could be worth up to $47.5 million and was one of the few bright spots for a winless team that has been decimated by injuries. The Niners already have 14 players in injured reserve.
The injury leaves the Niners with Marquise Goodwin, rookie Trent Taylor, Aldrick Robinson, and undrafted rookies Kendrick Bourne and Victor Bolden Jr. as the healthy receivers on the roster. That leaves no proven options for newly acquired Jimmy Garoppolo whenever he is ready to take over as starting quarterback. . ..
Lawyers for the NFL say Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott has no chance of success with his latest attempt to delay a six-game suspension. The lawyers made the argument in papers submitted to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appeals court is considering whether to weigh in on Elliott’s suspension for domestic violence allegations. His union’s lawyers argued that he will be damaged irreparably if his suspension begins with Sunday’s game against Kansas City.