If the NFL’s openi🅰ng week showed anജything, it was that the owners’ talk of expanding the season to 18 games and adding two playoff teams is madness.
There might not be any players left.
While angst aboꦬut injuries always seems to be high early in the season, the Week 1 carnage this year just seems worse than usual. Starti🐻ng quarterbacks, key pieces and even the most recent No. 1 overall pick all got caught in the grinder, with the majority of the injured expected to miss significant time.
And there’♌🍒s still two more games to go Monday night.
Jadeveon Clowney (knee), Logan Mankins (knee), Evan Mathis (leg), Ben Tate (knee) and Jordan Cameroꦇn (shoulder♕) were among the biggest names knocked out of their respective games, and Clowney — the top pick by the Texans — is expected to miss a month with injuries to his MCL and meniscus.
Not only that, but the Chiefs also lost two crucial parts to their defense for the rest of the season when linebacker D🌼errick Johnson and ex-🌊Jets defensive lineman Mike DeVito each tore his Achilles tendon.
The Rams have it worst, though. Aܫlready minus Sam Bradford for the year with a knee injury he suffered during the preseason, St. Louis lost replacement Shaun Hill to a thigh injury early a🌜gainst the Vikings and had to go with a third quarterback in Austin Davis making his NFL debut.
The predictable result for St. Louis was a 34-6 embarrassment that matched the most♚ lopsided opening loss at home in the franchi🔥se’s storied history.
Injuries are part of the sport, of course, but it’s not a good look for the NFL when so many of its teams are already in survival mode byཧ Week 2.
Solutions are still hard to come by, but it keeps get♕ting more and more obvious with each week that expanding the schedule and the playoff field without massively expanding the rosters (something the owners are loath to do) isn’t one of them.