Hines Ward Injury Status (1 Viewer)

[crowe1130]

Encouraging early words from Ward on his knee injury, but the MRI will obviously tell the real story. Right now he says he won't miss the SB, but if he did it would be a huge advantage to Arizona. Pittsburgh's offense completely changed without Ward in the game last night.

Ward Takes Cautious Route

Link

Steelers receiver Hines Ward left last night's AFC Championship game in the first quarter with a right knee injury and didn't return, but he said he doesn't envision the injury keeping him out of Super Bowl XLIII.

"I will play," Ward said in the victorious locker room. "I'll be there - through, rain, sleet, or snow."

Ward expects to undergo an MRI this week and indicated that he could have returned to last night's physical battle against the Ravens.

"It's just a sprained knee," he said. "They said it's nothing structurally. I was going to come back, but I didn't want to come back at 75 or 80 percent. It gave an opportunity for other guys to step up and they did that."

 

[harryhood]

Encouraging early words from Ward on his knee injury, but the MRI will obviously tell the real story. Right now he says he won't miss the SB, but if he did it would be a huge advantage to Arizona. Pittsburgh's offense completely changed without Ward in the game last night.

Ward Takes Cautious Route

Link

Steelers receiver Hines Ward left last night's AFC Championship game in the first quarter with a right knee injury and didn't return, but he said he doesn't envision the injury keeping him out of Super Bowl XLIII.

"I will play," Ward said in the victorious locker room. "I'll be there - through, rain, sleet, or snow."

Ward expects to undergo an MRI this week and indicated that he could have returned to last night's physical battle against the Ravens.

"It's just a sprained knee," he said. "They said it's nothing structurally. I was going to come back, but I didn't want to come back at 75 or 80 percent. It gave an opportunity for other guys to step up and they did that."

I like that mentality from Hines, I hope he comes back for the Super Bowl but man did that knee torque look like a season ender. If he doesn't, Limas Sweeds 2009 Fantasy Draft stock is about to launch. Other than the misjudged ball I thought he looked really good out there and if Ward was out, you could see a pretty impressive SB stat line.

 

[Bayhawks]

Encouraging early words from Ward on his knee injury, but the MRI will obviously tell the real story. Right now he says he won't miss the SB, but if he did it would be a huge advantage to Arizona. Pittsburgh's offense completely changed without Ward in the game last night.

Ward Takes Cautious Route

Link

Steelers receiver Hines Ward left last night's AFC Championship game in the first quarter with a right knee injury and didn't return, but he said he doesn't envision the injury keeping him out of Super Bowl XLIII.

"I will play," Ward said in the victorious locker room. "I'll be there - through, rain, sleet, or snow."

Ward expects to undergo an MRI this week and indicated that he could have returned to last night's physical battle against the Ravens.

"It's just a sprained knee," he said. "They said it's nothing structurally. I was going to come back, but I didn't want to come back at 75 or 80 percent. It gave an opportunity for other guys to step up and they did that."

I like that mentality from Hines, I hope he comes back for the Super Bowl but man did that knee torque look like a season ender. If he doesn't, Limas Sweeds 2009 Fantasy Draft stock is about to launch. Other than the misjudged ball I thought he looked really good out there and if Ward was out, you could see a pretty impressive SB stat line.

You're kidding right? That's 2 weeks in a row that Sweed dropped easy TDs. In the SD game, he got behind his defender and Leftwich threw a strike that hit him in the hands that he just dropped (just like yesterday). To make yesterday's drop worse, he also cost his team a timeout, by either faking an injury (since he came back into the game a few plays later) to cover up for his horrible drop, or by not being tough enough to make it to the sideline. After his drop, he held his stomach/groin area. You couldn't see on the replay where/how he got hurt. After his team was forced to take a timeout, he walks off the field on his own, and gets an earful from Tomlin. It didn't look like Tomlin was saying "are you OK?"He did go on to have a big block (that meant nothing, as Miller had already gotten by Ivey) and two catches. I'm not sure how any of this would lead you to believe his 2009 FF draft stock is "about to launch."

 

[CrossEyed]

Sweed has looked shaky all season. The only folks that would draft the guy for 2009 are the guys who didn't watch any of his 2008. I'm not willing to give up on him as an NFL WR, but If I were the Steelers I'd be bringing in a new WR or 2 to compete in camp.

As for Ward, he is a big part of the Steelers intermediate passing game and they clearly aren't the same without him. That said, they continue to under utilize Heath and I have no idea why. The guy has All-Pro talent. If Ward is out they should go to more 2 TE sets and use him and Spaeth a lot more.

 

[Black Box]

Sweed has looked shaky all season. The only folks that would draft the guy for 2009 are the guys who didn't watch any of his 2008. I'm not willing to give up on him as an NFL WR, but If I were the Steelers I'd be bringing in a new WR or 2 to compete in camp.As for Ward, he is a big part of the Steelers intermediate passing game and they clearly aren't the same without him. That said, they continue to under utilize Heath and I have no idea why. The guy has All-Pro talent. If Ward is out they should go to more 2 TE sets and use him and Spaeth a lot more.

All of it.

 

[harryhood]

Encouraging early words from Ward on his knee injury, but the MRI will obviously tell the real story. Right now he says he won't miss the SB, but if he did it would be a huge advantage to Arizona. Pittsburgh's offense completely changed without Ward in the game last night.

Ward Takes Cautious Route

Link

Steelers receiver Hines Ward left last night's AFC Championship game in the first quarter with a right knee injury and didn't return, but he said he doesn't envision the injury keeping him out of Super Bowl XLIII.

"I will play," Ward said in the victorious locker room. "I'll be there - through, rain, sleet, or snow."

Ward expects to undergo an MRI this week and indicated that he could have returned to last night's physical battle against the Ravens.

"It's just a sprained knee," he said. "They said it's nothing structurally. I was going to come back, but I didn't want to come back at 75 or 80 percent. It gave an opportunity for other guys to step up and they did that."

I like that mentality from Hines, I hope he comes back for the Super Bowl but man did that knee torque look like a season ender. If he doesn't, Limas Sweeds 2009 Fantasy Draft stock is about to launch. Other than the misjudged ball I thought he looked really good out there and if Ward was out, you could see a pretty impressive SB stat line.

You're kidding right? That's 2 weeks in a row that Sweed dropped easy TDs. In the SD game, he got behind his defender and Leftwich threw a strike that hit him in the hands that he just dropped (just like yesterday). To make yesterday's drop worse, he also cost his team a timeout, by either faking an injury (since he came back into the game a few plays later) to cover up for his horrible drop, or by not being tough enough to make it to the sideline. After his drop, he held his stomach/groin area. You couldn't see on the replay where/how he got hurt. After his team was forced to take a timeout, he walks off the field on his own, and gets an earful from Tomlin. It didn't look like Tomlin was saying "are you OK?"He did go on to have a big block (that meant nothing, as Miller had already gotten by Ivey) and two catches. I'm not sure how any of this would lead you to believe his 2009 FF draft stock is "about to launch."

Simply stating that if Ward is out, he is going to have OPPORTUNITY on the biggest stage in the NFL. In that game, if he is at least somewhat impressive, his value will have a full head of steam heading into 2009

 

[Tex Goldstein]

Sweed has looked shaky all season. The only folks that would draft the guy for 2009 are the guys who didn't watch any of his 2008. I'm not willing to give up on him as an NFL WR, but If I were the Steelers I'd be bringing in a new WR or 2 to compete in camp.As for Ward, he is a big part of the Steelers intermediate passing game and they clearly aren't the same without him. That said, they continue to under utilize Heath and I have no idea why. The guy has All-Pro talent. If Ward is out they should go to more 2 TE sets and use him and Spaeth a lot more.

The funniest thing I saw in the writeups on yesterday's game (in the Pit. Post Gazette, I think) was when one of the beat writers described the situation for the Steelers after Wards injury as "leaving the Steelers in the alleged hands of Limas Sweed" LOL

 

[MAC_32]

Limas Sweed has played in 2008 much like he had in years prior. You can hope for progress sometime down the line, but to expect it at this point would be foolish. He's always had stone hands and focus issues, why is there any reason to believe this will change? Tools don't mean #### if you don't know how to use them.

Related note, anyone else catch Tomlin's reaction on the sideline post TD drop? Can't make that stuff up.

 

[Neil Beaufort Zod]

Anybody else have trouble with the "could have come back in" inference? I mean, come on. It's the conference title game. They needed him right then and there. A two-point lead and trying to hang on to the ball and they didn't need him in the lineup?

Two weeks is a good amount of time so it wouldn't surprise me to see him out there for the game. But if he could have played more yesterday, he would have. I'm not buying how much it's being downplayed.

 

[CrossEyed]

Anybody else have trouble with the "could have come back in" inference? I mean, come on. It's the conference title game. They needed him right then and there. A two-point lead and trying to hang on to the ball and they didn't need him in the lineup? Two weeks is a good amount of time so it wouldn't surprise me to see him out there for the game. But if he could have played more yesterday, he would have. I'm not buying how much it's being downplayed.

Yeah, I don't buy that at all. Hines isn't the kind of player that sits out an AFC Championship Game if he could possibly play. We're not talking about Ladainian Tomlinson here.

 

[Hoss_Cartwright]

NFL Headlines

Hines Ward may need surgery on knee

Hines Ward revealed that he may need surgery on his sprained right knee.

Hines believes he exacerbated the injury by playing on it Sunday. Ward received around the clock treatment, including removing and re-injecting blood cells, to get ready for the big game. Tests this week should determine the severity of the injury, but Ward's knee was clearly in worse shape than originally believed. Feb. 3 - 11:01 am et

Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review