There were two big ACL injuries in Week 3.
First up, Jimmy Garoppolo tore his ACL attempting to get a couple extra yards on a scramble. Rather than run out of bounds, Garoppolo attempts to plant his left leg to turn in field. The leg visibly buckles on contact with the ground and he is hit by Chiefs corner Steven Nelson. The tear occurs before Nelson hits him.
Another angle on the Garoppolo injurypic.twitter.com/qdhNKsLvyG
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 23, 2018
This is a huge loss for the Niners, with McKinnon also out for an ACL tear, they now have 20.25% of their cap on injured reserve. They also do not have an heir apparent for Garoppolo, C.J. Beathard has taken that spot for now. Nick Mullens has been promoted from the practice squad. They are reportedly bringing in Tom Savage, Kellen Clemens, T.J. Yates, and Landry Jones. They have not reached out to Kaepernick at this stage.
Hayes Tears His ACL
The second big ACL injury was during the undefeated Dolphins win over the winless Raiders. Defensive End William Hayes suffered the ACL tear during a second-quarter sack.
This play resulted in a torn ACL for #Dolphins DE William Hayes, who uses his knee to keep from putting his full weight on #Raiders QB Derek Carr. With this rule, the #NFL has placed an emphasis on the health of the QB to the detriment of all those who try to hit him pic.twitter.com/o24wgJGjf9
— Kevin Boilard (@247KevinBoilard) September 24, 2018
After the game Head Coach, Adam Gase told the media that Hayes was attempting to avoid landing on Carr with the full weight of his body. Photos from the sideline show Hayes with his leg awkwardly placed so that he could roll off Carr rather than land on him.
Gase said that Hayes was trying not to put body weight on the quarterback on the sack in which he got hurt. “It’s going to be a tough one for us to swallow.”
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) September 24, 2018
Not only do we have ambiguity around what get’s called and what doesn’t. We have good defensive players getting injured while attempting to conform to this stupid rule. The NFL needs to change this rule. Quarterbacks will get hurt, but that is the nature of the game.
