Yeah, I feel a little bit bad for that headline. I’m not trying to mock Cincinnati Bengals tackle Andre Smith, but I’ve got to call it like I see it. Smith left the game with a left arm injury less than an hour ago, and some ugly reports are already rolling in:
Belief is Bengals OT Andre Smith suffered a significant tear to his triceps, source says. Won't know full extent until MRI tomorrow.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) November 23, 2014
If these reports are true and Smith has suffered a triceps injury, you can almost certainly count him out for the rest of the season, post-season and all. How can I be so sure of that? As usual, I’d point towards historical comparisons. I can point to ten examples of triceps tears from 2010 to 2013, and only two of those ten players made it back during the same season. In 2013, T Jared Veldheer fought his way back onto the roster… but his injury came in August and he didn’t make it back until Week 13. DE Justin Smith is the best-case scenario of triceps tears, as he only missed three weeks (two games plus one bye week) before coming back in 2012 after suffering what was reported to be about a 50% tear of his left triceps. Then again, he played pretty poorly upon his return, so it’s not like it was all peachy for him.
As always, we’ll know more when the MRI results come back tomorrow, but really, I’m not sure why we need to wait in this case. The few triceps injuries that players actually come back quickly from tend to be strains and bruises, not tears as we’re reported to be seeing here.
