How many weeks do you think JT will be out?

At first report, this injury sounded like a simple hematoma. Based on what we heard yesterday, Taylor may have had a fasciotomy, which is a much much more significant procedure. Without getting entirely disgusting, a fasciotomy is an incision(s) through the skin and soft tissue to release pressure under the skin -- look at a few pictures on wikipedia if you want the full gory details. It's not something that gets sutured back up in a day or two and all's well.

If it was a fasciotomy, you're looking at a month minimum, I'd think, and probably longer.

A news article that I read said it was a 6-inch incision, and the procedure lasted 20 minutes with the muscle draining nicely. I'm not a doc, but a 6-inch incision sounds like serious business to me, and I can't imagine a guy running around getting that hit by other large dudes less than two-weeks after such a surgery, even if all goes well in the recovery.

David Elfin of the Washington Times is reporting this today:


Obviously Elfin is speculating at the end there, but that he's gone from crutches to unassisted walking in 2 days is encouraging.

It's all about infection and inflammation. If that wound stays clean, then he'll heal fast and they can wrap the lower leg to protect it. I still wonder whether a healing wound can be expected to hold up under the rigors of NFL play in the trenches inside of two weeks. Jene, will the stitches be removed by then if there's no infection or other complications?

Depending on the amount of tension needed to close the wound, lower leg stitches usually stay in somewhere around 10 days, give or take a couple of days.

And once the stitches are removed, again assuming good healing and no infection, how long until you could expect it to hold up to blunt trauma and skin tension from athletic movement?

Hey, is Jene an MD?... Or, did he stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night???

The skin repair should hold up pretty well immediately, especially with reinforcement. It takes another week or more for the underlying connective tissue to begin to scar and heal. He'll be at some risk for the wound opening for two to three weeks.

I'm a pediatrician working part time in an Urgent Care with a little volunteer experience and interest in sports medicine.

I'd cut bait with Taylor at this point, if you can get something for him.
Especially if you have him in a keeper situation where he is still holds extra value. Trade him.

Objectively speaking, this is probably the right idea. Taylor has looked good when he's played (more from an NFL standpoint than a FF IDP standpoint), especially the last couple of games when his knee wasn't greatly bothering him, so he still "has it", so he'll probably still have trade value. He's not generally perceived as having gone around the bend talentwise.

OTOH, this injury would appear to be one in which there's going to be a weeks-long recovery, at best. Their bye week isn't until week 9, so you don't even get a free week there for his recovery. Moreover, there's some suspcion that Taylor may seriously think about retirement after this year anyway, and given his until-today unbroken consecutive starts streak this has been the first season in a very long time in his career where injuries have greatly affected him. He strikes me as the kind of guy with enough ambitions after football to want to have full use of his knees and legs. Also, his family didn't relocate with him from Miami to the DC area.

Note, I'm not predicting he retires, just wondering whether it might happen - Jason's official position is undecided past this year, and for all I know he might return next year and be as good as ever.

Anyway, I agree that trading and getting what value you can at this point might be a good idea.

It was difficult, but I found a buyer. Sad to see JT leave the roster, but I agree. time to cut bait.

Taylor working his way back:

also...

I'm one of those hopeless romantic suckers that have kept Jason on their roster. How does this latest surgury effect him? Is there any chance he gets healthy and comes back this year and performs close to previous years? Or is this year just a loss for his IDP usefulness and it's time to cut bait?

The latest procedure was not nearly as involved as the last one. Much smaller incision simply to drain fluid and make sure that no pressure was building up. My impression would be that he could play week 10 were there not a bye, but they're using the bye week to help make sure he's fully healed.

I'm holding out hope as a 'Skins fan that he heals completely and turns in a strong home stretch run for the team, but I have no way of knowing whether that will happen.