“Another one.” – DJ Khaled
Seattle Seahawks All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman ruptured his right Achilles’ tendon Thursday night against the Arizona Cardinals, becoming the latest star player to suffer a season-ending injury this NFL season.
Certain high-profile players are bound to have their season — it’s the nature of the sport — but 2017 has seen an unusually large number of stars go down with long-term injuries.
Below is a quick rundown of star players that have either officially been shut down for the year or are unlikely to return from their ailments.
Hopefully no new names are added to the list in Week 10.
Aaron Rodgers – When Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr slammed Rodgers to the ground in a mid-October game the Packers’ playoff hopes took a severe hit when Rodgers suffered a broken collarbone.
J.J. Watt, Whitney Mercilus, Deshaun Watson – The AFC South looked like it was the Texans’ to lose before three of their most important players went down. Watt played just three games in 2016 and only lasted five games this year before breaking his leg. Another crushing blow to his team and NFL fans. Mercilus suffered a torn pectoral muscle in the same game Watt went down and then Watson went down in practice a few weeks later. Watson was firmly in the MVP and Offensive Rookie of the Year race.
Odell Beckham Jr. – One of the most dynamic playmakers in the game broke his ankle and football fans were robbed of some potentially jaw-dropping catches. His Giants teammate Brandon Marshall also went down with an ankle injury that required surgery.
David Johnson, Carson Palmer – The Cardinals were supposed to have one of the more potent offences in the NFC but Johnson, whose aspirations of gaining 1,000 yards on the ground and through the air were not crazy, went down in Week 1 with a dislocated wrist that required surgery. Rookie running back T.J. Logan suffered the same injury. Then, in Week 7 Palmer broke his left arm essentially ending Arizona’s post-season aspirations.
Sam Bradford, Dalvin Cook – Cook had already established himself as a three-down Pro Bowl-calibre running back, while Bradford had the league’s best QB rating. Knee injuries are the worst.
Joe Thomas, Jason Peters – We saw two of the best left tackles of their generation go down in the same dang week. Thomas (torn left triceps) is one of the only bright spots on the Browns and Peters (torn ACL and MCL in his right knee) was a huge reason why Carson Wentz has evolved into an MVP frontrunner.
Six-time Pro-Bowler Marshal Yanda of the Ravens and Packers’ stalwart Bryan Bulaga are also done for the year. Not a great year for high-end offensive linemen.
Here are some other casualties from the 2017 NFL season
More starting QBs
Andrew Luck
Ryan Tannehill
Key offensive players
Julian Edelman
Allen Robinson
Tyler Eifert
Pierre Garcon
Zach Miller
Spencer Ware
Darren Sproles
Kevin White
Cameron Meredith
John Kuhn
Jeremy Hill
Quincy Enunwa
Chris Carson
Danny Woodhead (likely to return)
Greg Olsen (likely to return)
Corey Coleman (likely to return)-
Defensive studs
Eric Berry
Cliff Avril
Delvin Breaux
Jason Verrett
Haloti Ngata
Nick Fairley
Malcolm Smith
Jerrell Freeman
Quinten Rollins
Quintin Demps
Dont’a Hightower
Kickers get hurt too
Sebastian Janikowski
Dustin Hopkins.
Caleb Sturgis
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