Trying to address medical concerns is difficult for any potential NFL draftee. Even when a college injury has been correctly diagnosed and treated, NFL team doctors might have widely different opinions on how that injury mcould affect the player in the future. Such is the case right now with Arizona State WR Jaelen Strong. Strong fractured a, “small bone,” in his wrist back in November of 2014. He played through the injury and did not have surgery. This all seemed like a mostly dead issue right up until a few weeks ago. On April 15th, suddenly everyone was divided over whether Strong might still need surgery to fix this wrist fracture. Plenty of sources said that Strong would need surgery. Well, more accurately, plenty of sources said that anonymous medical sources thought Strong would require surgery. That gets a little convoluted. For his part, Jaelen Strong denies that he needs surgery.
Here’s where it gets kooky. Jaelen Strong chose not to attend the combine medical recheck that was held a few weeks ago. Rather than let all 32 teams examine his wrist, Strong basically chose to tell them all, “Hey, the Steelers say my wrist is all good. We’re cool.” Right before that combine medical recheck, Strong went for a team visit with the Steelers. The Steelers medical staff apparently cleared Jaelen Strong’s wrist, and released the accompanying medical info to all of the other 31 NFL teams. Strong himself compares his case to that of RB Tre Mason. Right before the 2014 NFL draft, word leaked out that NFL teams were worried about future wrist surgery for a previous fracture, same as with Strong. It turned out that Tre Mason avoided surgery and had a very productive rookie season.
We all know that I can’t tell you whether of not Jaelen Strong will need surgery. Probably nobody knows that right now. And that’s the problem. As long as team have even a suspicion that Strong could need surgery (which might hinder his practice, development, and eventual performance), it has the potential to hurt his draft stock. True, Tre Mason did not end up needing surgery, but that does not change the fact that there was the potential for surgery in that case. Mason came out on the winning side of that risk/reward equation, but it does not mean that he was without risk. In my opinion, in a situation like this, Strong is not doing himself any favors by letting one NFL team staff do all the speaking for him. Medical opinions often differ between NFL teams, and I can’t see a team that already had concerns being comforted by what the Steelers staff has reported. NFL medical staffs want to do their own tests, and anything less might only hurt Strong’s value.
Right now, the consensus seems to be that Jaelen Strong will be taken anywhere from the mid-first round to the mid-second round. In a draft deep at wide receiver, Strong has been viewed as perhaps the fifth best talent at his position, though that varies by source. He’s seen as someone who has some amazing potential, as at least a few of his weaknesses in college might be from having an ineffective quarterback. No matter whether or not Strong ultimately needs wrist surgery, the risk is there, and I don’t think that the medical report from the Steelers will alleviate that concern. Of course, maybe nothing would ever alleviate that concern for most teams. Strong is trying to prove a negative, in that he does not need surgery, and that is borderline impossible to prove conclusively. Curious to see how this one plays out.
