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The New England Patriots are having their way with the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round on Saturday afternoon, but their success may come at a price.
Star linebacker Jamie Collins left the game in the third quarter with a back injury, and he was quickly ruled questionable to return:
After going to the locker room, he did come back out to the bench fairly soon, but Dr. David J. Chao, a former NFL head team physician who is often pretty accurate predicting injuries, offered a not-so-encouraging outlook:
It’s tough to overstate the importance of Collins to this defense. A terrific athlete with great speed, he has the skill set to make plays both in the running game and in coverage. Before leaving with the back injury, he had played on 100 percent of New England’s defensive snaps against Kansas City.
Not only is Collins an outstanding talent and budding star, but this is killer for the Patriots’ linebacker depth, as both Dont’a Hightower and Jerod Mayo are also battling injuries, leading to increased playing time for both Darius Fleming and Jonathan Freeny.
We’ll have more on Collins’ status as soon as more is known, but it appears it will take a Patriots win for him to play again this season. Fortunately for New England, which has dealt with an array of injuries over the last six weeks, it has a pretty good offense it can fall back on.