Analysis
10/4/23
6 min read
2023 NFL Week 4 Injury Takeaways: No Slowing Rams' Matthew Stafford
The first four weeks of the NFL season have come and gone. It's fair to say every team is dealing with injuries in some capacity. The bumps and bruises are starting to pile up, along with the more severe injuries. Even so, NFL players routinely play through pain.
Every team’s medical staff operates differently, every player’s body responds differently and every team’s situation is different. Those factors play a significant role in determining when a player returns to the field.
Several players suffered injuries in their respective Week 4 games, and we’re highlighting a few who stayed in the game or returned to play and were still impact players.
Important Week 4 Injuries
Matthew Stafford, QB, Rams
Matthew Stafford battled through a hip pointer for the latter half of Sunday's game. A hip pointer is bruising to a sensitive area on the upper part of the hip caused by direct contact. Several muscle groups are connected to this area of the hip, making this injury easy to aggravate by something as light as walking.
You could notice him hobbling in pain as he limped around the field. It affected his play, too. The five drives following his injury ended in an interception, missed field goal, punt, turnover on downs and punt to close out regulation. Despite this, Stafford led an impressive overtime drive to salvage a win in Indianapolis.
This is nothing new for Stafford, who has played through countless injuries throughout his long career, though injuries sidelined him last season. Stafford played in only nine games and never looked 100 percent. He dealt with an elbow injury in the offseason that lingered through the early part of the year, missed Week 10 because of a concussion and the Los Angeles Rams placed him on IR for a spinal cord bruise after Week 11.
The Rams finished 5-12, the worst record ever for a defending Super Bowl Champion, and injuries played a significant role in why.
After being at least partly responsible for the emergence of Puka Nacua in the first four weeks of the season, Stafford and now a seemingly under-the-radar Rams team are 2-2. They and looking to get Cooper Kupp back soon to fight for positioning in an uncertain NFC playoff picture.
Justin Herbert, QB, Chargers
51 yards on 3rd and 10! Herbert finds Joshua Palmer!
📺: #LVvsLAC on CBS⁰📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/Jq9JHUeqb6 pic.twitter.com/Y3SDuye7of
— NFL (@NFL) October 1, 2023
Justin Herbert was another quarterback who played through an ailment in Week 4. As the Las Vegas Raiders returned an interception he threw in the third quarter, he got his finger caught in a helmet and fractured his left middle finger. He played with a splint and a modified glove to close out the game and didn’t miss any snaps.
Herbert was fortunate the injury was to his non-throwing hand. He will lose grip strength on that left hand when handling the football, but as evident on his 51-yard game-clinching throw to close out a win against the Raiders, it won’t affect his right arm talent.
Davante Adams, WR, Raiders
In the same game, Davante Adams gutted through a shoulder injury to help keep the Raiders in the game. Adams suffered a shoulder injury that looked similar to the injury mechanism Brandon Aiyuk endured in Week 2. Aiyuk played through an acromioclavicular (AC) joint sprain, albeit in a limited fashion, but missed the following week.
Adams didn’t have a catch on two targets before the injury, but he returned to the game after going to the locker room and finished with eight receptions for 75 yards on 13 targets.
With a fourth-round rookie quarterback making his first start, having Adams on the field was crucial. A week after Adams commented about the lack of winning culture in Las Vegas, he backed it up with his toughness, even in a losing effort. By coming back into the game, not only was Adams’ shoulder limited in range of motion, but he risked making the injury worse.
No matter who is under center, Adams is still one of the most valuable wide receivers in the league. His 13.49 Total Points in 2023 ranks fourth among all receivers, trailing only Tyreek Hill (14.47), Justin Jefferson (14.94) and Keenan Allen (15.34).
Frank Ragnow, OC, Lions
The injuries those three players referenced above suffered aren’t likely to affect each player long-term. Other players have to manage pain or inflammation every week. There have been countless examples of players on their teams’ injury reports for multiple weeks for the same reason and still suit up when game time rolls around.
Detroit Lions offensive lineman Frank Ragnow is one of those players. The Lions have listed him on the injury report every week of the 2023 season. He is dealing with a chronic toe issue. In 2021, he suffered a Grade 3 turf toe injury (complete tear of the toe ligament) and missed the rest of the season after surgery.
The following season, he suffered a similar injury but decided against another surgery and played through it. No healthy tissue remains in that toe because of his injuries (according to Tim Twentyman of the Lions' official site), and Ragnow could have undergone an experimental procedure this offseason.
Instead of taking on that risk, he opted to skip surgery and would instead go through the ups and downs of managing the pain throughout the season.
Ragnow probably doesn’t want to undergo another procedure because of the return-to-play outlook for high-grade turf toe injuries. A study from The Orthopaedic Journal at Harvard Medical School found that:
“The overall return to play (RTP) rate for high-grade turf-toe injuries was 91% (48/53). Athletes who were treated nonoperatively had an RTP rate of 100% (28/28) while athletes treated operatively had an RTP rate of 80% (20/25).”
Going through surgery again would lessen his chances of returning to the field and returning to his high level of play.
Considering what he’s dealt with, it’s even more impressive he made the Pro Bowl last year. This season, among offensive linemen, he ranks 31st in Total Points and has played all of the Lions’ offensive snaps.
Whether it’s an in-game injury that hampers a player on any given Sunday or a chronic issue they must monitor for the rest of their career, injuries push NFL players to the limit of what their bodies can handle.
These players’ bodies are the primary tools they use to do their jobs. Managing the risk of making an injury worse or not being at full strength is a battle every team and player has to deal with.
Brett Barnes authored this article.
