Only minutes ago, Titans QB Zach Mettenberger was taken down by the Texans J.J. Watt (who else would it be, right?). Metttenberger crunched into the turf with his right (throwing) shoulder, and immediately left the field to be replaced by Jake Locker. As usual, we know very very little about Mettenberger’s injury at this point, but of course that won’t stop me from speculating.
There are two obvious possible injuries that stand out with this mechanism of being driven to the turf like Mettenberger was. Most NFL fans can probably even name them, as this seems to come up a few times a year, most recently with Nick Foles. In case you’re not right there with me on injury obsession, what we’re looking at here is most likely either an AC sprain or a fractured collarbone. In the case of Foles, it ended up being a fractured collarbone, but there was a period of a few hours where it was an impossible call as to which way it would go. Since we’re in that same foggy lack-of-details state, I’ll spell out the possibilities on those two separate injuries for a QB.
If Mettenberger is lucky, he escaped with only an AC sprain. That would entail him having suffered some ligament damage to his throwing shoulder. The amount of time me misses would of course hinge on how bad the ligament damage was. At his position though, he’d likely miss some serious time, possibly even the rest of the season. In my database, I don’t have many QBs with throwing-arm AC sprains, but the most notable one would have to be Matthew Stafford in 2010. (Not 2009, when Stafford had the same injury, but in his left, non-throwing shoulder). In 2010, Stafford suffered a grade 2 AC sprain (the middle grade with 1 being mild and 3 being severe) and missed the next six weeks (five games and one bye). Only a few weeks after returning, Stafford reinjured the same shoulder. This reinjury was a grade 3 AC sprain, and he missed the rest of the season, eventually landing on the injured reserve list and missing the final eight weeks of the season. So Mettenberger’s best case scenario here is that he has a mild, grade 1 sprain and that he misses minimal time… far less than Stafford’s six game absence. Obviously though, seeing as how we’re in Week 13, there’s a pretty decent chance that even a mild injury lands Mettenberger on injured reserve, as we’re simply running out of time here.
If Mettenberger is unlucky, we’re looking at a fractured collarbone, as Nick Foles had. Unlike Foles (or Romo or Rodgers) though, this injury was on the throwing shoulder, so it would absolutely 100% without-a-doubt end Mettenberger’s season. Even if it were to his non-throwing shoulder (which it is not), it would still end his season, so there’s no doubt about this one. Iron clad injured reserve, if it’s a collarbone fracture. Or a collarbone, “crack,” if the team tries to downplay it like that… doesn’t matter, he’s out.
Of course, there’s always the chance Mettenberger has some other shoulder injury. On the less-severe end, it could turn out to be a bruise or laceration of some sort. I mean, I doubt it, and I’ve seen nothing to suggest this, but I guess it is possible. On the more-severe end, we could also be looking at a shoulder dislocation, labrum, or rotator cuff injury. All three are ugly, and all three would end his season, but again, I have nothing to suggest that any of these are probable in Mettenberger’s case.
Hopefully we’ll have word in the next few hours, but I can say that, given the historical comparisons, things do not look good for Mettenberger making it back to the field this season.
Update, November 30th, 4:37 pm: Based on this Tweet from The Tennessean reported Jim Wyatt, Mettenberger suffered a mild, grade 1 AC sprain. This is the mildest sprain possible, and it’s good news for Mettenberger for sure. Still, it’s tough to know exactly when he’ll be back in action, even though Mettenberger is reported to be telling teammates that he’ll play next week. I’d point out that players are almost always a little overly optimistic on when they will return. I’ll be interested to see how this one plays out.
