ERIC DECKED
Rest and rehab - not surgery - the plan for sidelined Decker's shoulder
Shoulder injury forces vet to sit Sunday:
One of the Jets’ biggest strengths may have just become a weakness — and at the worst possible time.
Wide receiver Eric Decker has a partially torn right rotator cuff, and will miss Sunday’s game against the Seahawks and their “Legion of Boom” secondary at MetLife Stadium. Decker is currently week-toweek as he attempts to rest and rehab the shoulder.
“It’s something that kind of sucks at this point early in the season,” Decker said Friday. “I felt like this was going to be a year where I could avoid injuries, but it’s something I got to deal with.”
Decker first suffered the injury against the Bills on Sept. 15, and it worsened last Sunday against the Chiefs. For the time being, surgery isn’t an option, though when Decker can return is uncertain.
When asked if this is a potential season-ending injury, coach Todd Bowles said: “I’m not sure. They have to monitor it. [Doctors] said some people play with over the course of time. We’ll see how it goes.” The plan is to rehab the shoulder and see whether the 29-year-old can get back enough range of motion and strength around the rotator cuff to play through the pain. The sure-handed veteran receiver, who last season had 80 catches for 1,027 yards and 12 touchdowns, isn’t concerned about making it worse, though he also doesn’t expect to be at 100 percent at any point this year. “I never really worry about what can happen, because if you do that, you’re just setting yourself back, and you’re now allowing yourself to play your game,” said Decker, who had just nine catches through three games, but led the Jets with 194 yards receiving and two touchdown catches. “It’s definitely something I’m not worried about. “Throughout the league, everyone has injuries. There’s pain tolerance. At my position, I have to have range of motion and strength to catch balls outside of my body and separate [from defensive backs] with my hands. So getting to the point where I’m comfortable enough to be able to do that and execute that, that’s the end result I want to get to. Of course there’s going to be pain. Everyone plays through pain. It’s just getting where it’s manageable, and I can still play the same game that I need to play.” If Decker does have the surgery, his season would almost certainly be over, according to Dr. Leesa Galatz, a shoulder specialist and the system chair of orthopedics at Mount Sinai Health System and the Icahn School of Medicine. Galatz believes Decker will need a few weeks for the pain to go away — Decker said he’s feeling much better since shutting it down Monday — but he can play with the partial tear.
“It’s not a high risk it will become a complete tear unless he has a another severe injury,” Galatz said.
Decker has suffered from similar shoulder injuries in the past, dating back to his days as a baseball player at Minnesota. Without Decker, the Jets will be asking a lot of several young and unproven receivers, such as third-year pro Quincy Enunwa and undrafted rookies Robby Anderson and Charone Peake. And they will get their first taste of that expanded role against the Seahawks and their star-studded secondary.
“You start thinking, ‘ Oh my God, I’m playing Richard Sherman,’ I’m putting unneeded stress on myself,” said Enunwa, one of the Jets’ best players through three games, with a team-leading 17 catches for 183 yards and a touchdown. “[Our young receivers] don’t think any stage is too big for them. All of us have that underdog mindset that we just want go out and compete. Whoever’s out there is going to get this work, I guess.”
At least publicly, the Jets don’t appear ready to change the way they attack opposing teams, not even a secondary as talented as the one belonging to the Seahawks.
“We got other guys on this team for a reason,” Bowles said. “We got a lot of young guys who have to step up and play — and make plays.”