The NFL preseason is always a scary time for teams. They want to weigh getting ready for the regular season against the risk of injury that comes with exposing their players to live contact. Here are the latest NFL injury updates regarding some of the NFL’s more significant names in Week 1 of the preseason.
Saturday’s NFL injury update | Preseason Week 1
By early Sunday morning, all but one NFL team — the Minnesota Vikings — will have played a preseason game. But every team in the NFL is already dealing with injuries. Some have more serious concerns than others.
The New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons saw two of their best young players go down — quarterback Zach Wilson for New York and wide receiver Drake London for Atlanta. The Cleveland Browns also saw their starting center, Nick Harris carted off the field. Here’s the latest on these players, plus updates from Saturday’s games as they come in.
Likely season-ending knee injury for Nick Harris
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski announced on Saturday afternoon that Harris suffered a likely season-ending knee injury on the second play of Friday night’s preseason game vs. the Jaguars. There will be a second opinion on the injury to confirm the diagnosis.
Harris, who was in line to replace JC Tretter on the offensive line, was immediately ruled out for the rest of the game with a leg injury.
Harris has been receiving praise during training camp and openly discussed how he had never felt better physically.
“I tried really hard this offseason to take care of my body composition, put on some weight and put on some muscle,” he said earlier in training camp. “Going through these practices, I’ve realized I feel a little bit different, a little bit heavier. It feels good.”
We’ll see if the Browns turn back to Tretter with a big hole on the interior of their offensive line.
Torn meniscus for Jets quarterback Zach Wilson
Gang Green Nation might be blue in the face from holding its breath for the better part of the day after Wilson came up lame following a first-quarter scramble against the Eagles Friday night. But they can exhale now that the MRI came back with relatively good news.
Wilson avoided an ACL tear, the New York Post first reported, but did tear his right meniscus and suffered a bone bruise. The Post report added Wilson would miss between two and four weeks — which could potentially put into jeopardy his availability for the Jets’ season opener against the Ravens.
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Doctors will surgically repair the meniscus, but per the Post, it will be a minor procedure.
Assuming all goes well and Wilson doesn’t miss significant regular-season time, the Jets will presumably still go into the season with Wilson as their starter and Joe Flacco his backup. There was speculation late Friday that if Wilson suffered an ACL rupture, New York might pursue 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. That is off the table, with Wilson expected to miss just a few weeks.
Falcons WR Drake London avoids serious injury
Another high draft pick with a bright future left his preseason opener with a knee injury. But Drake London isn’t expected to miss significant time. More details will be available Saturday once the results from his imaging are revealed.
PFN’s NFL Director Adam Beasley contributed to these reports.