Jaguars first-rounder Jalen Ramsey suffers knee injury
If it wasn’t for bad luck, the Jacksonville Jaguars might have no luck at all. Especially with their first-round draft picks.
Cornerback Jalen Ramsey, the team’s top pick in April, suffered a knee injury during offseason activities that is believed to be a small meniscus tear. Although it doesn’t appear to be a season-ending injury, like the one rookie Dante Fowler Jr. suffered last year in the offseason, but another opinion is coming.
Ramsey figures heavily into the Jaguars’ defensive plans, as does second-round linebacker Myles Jack, who fell that far because of concerns about his knee. So naturally, there are some nervous folks right now in the organization holding their collective breaths. Back in high school, Ramsey required microfracture surgery to repair his knee, which ended his sophomore season entirely.
Jack told the New York Post prior to the draft that some doctors believe that his injured meniscus might one day require microfracture, which is performed to help heal the loss of cartilage but often ends football career prematurely. But the Jaguars checked out Jack’s knee thoroughly prior to the draft and considered drafting him with the fifth pick they used on Ramsey before they traded up two spots in Round 2 to select Jack there.
Prior to Fowler tearing his ACL 15 minutes into the first day of offseason training last year, 2014 first-round pick Blake Bortles stayed healthy as a rookie but was forced into the lineup earlier than expected and took a beating behind a bad offensive line (a league-high 55 sacks in 13 starts). Left tackle Luke Joeckel, the team’s 2013 first-rounder suffered a season-ending knee injury in the fifth game of the season that year.
The two years prior to that, the team selected top-10 picks Justin Blackmon and Blaine Gabbert, neither of whom are effectively with the team, although there is a slim possibility that Blackmon returns from his indefinite league suspension.
The team’s lack of recent success — a 19-61 record the past five seasons — can be directly tied to the bad luck and bad decision-making with its first-round picks.
We’ll find out if their luck is improving with Ramsey’s second opinion when it comes.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
