DENVER — The preliminary perception is that Inexperienced Bay Packers star go rusher Micah Parsons suffered a torn ACL in his left knee Sunday, a supply confirmed to ESPN.
Professional Soccer Discuss first reported the information.
Parsons sustained a noncontact harm to his left knee within the third quarter of Inexperienced Bay’s 34-26 loss to the Denver Broncos.
“It did not look good. I am going to depart it at that,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur stated.
In the identical quarter, Packers vast receiver Christian Watson, the group’s most explosive offensive participant, suffered a chest harm and left the sport. Watson was taken to a hospital for additional analysis and traveled again to Inexperienced Bay with the group.
“That is clearly a extremely powerful evening in a number of methods with reference to dropping the soccer sport,” LaFleur stated. “Give Denver a ton of credit score. That is a extremely good soccer group. I believed it was a dogfight for many of the sport, after which they form of ran away with it within the second half.
“It was additionally a double whammy for us, simply dropping some items which can be crucial for our success. However that is the secret. I instructed the blokes no person’s going to really feel sorry for us. We have got to rally round each other. All people’s going to should elevate their play.”
Parsons suffered the harm whereas making an attempt to hurry Broncos quarterback Bo Nix and instantly grabbed his left knee. He walked to the locker room with a big limp. He was dominated out within the fourth quarter.
Parsons didn’t document a sack Sunday, however he made his presence felt early when he pressured a fumble in opposition to Broncos operating again RJ Harvey on the sport’s opening drive that was recovered by Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper.
Parsons’ first season with the Packers has been a powerful success after they traded two first-round picks plus defensive sort out Kenny Clark to the Dallas Cowboys to accumulate him shortly earlier than the season. The Packers gave Parsons a four-year, $188 million contract on the identical day they traded for him.
With 12.5 sacks coming into the sport, Parsons is the primary participant in NFL historical past to document a minimum of a dozen sacks in every of his first 5 NFL seasons. Parsons additionally got here into Week 15 with an NFL-leading 60 pressures, 10 greater than another participant within the league and probably the most pressures by any participant inside a group’s first 13 video games of a season prior to now seven years.
Watson was dominated out shortly after his harm, which occurred when Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II landed on prime of Watson whereas intercepting a deep go from Jordan Love. Watson appeared to land onerous on his left shoulder, with Surtain’s physique weight making it worse.
Earlier than leaving, Watson had three catches for 29 yards, and the Packers had been main 23-14.
Watson was taking part in in his eighth sport of the season after lacking the primary two months whereas recovering from a knee harm. He had been extremely productive since his return, with 25 catches for 452 yards and 5 touchdowns.
Coming into Sunday’s sport, Watson’s 18.1-yard common per catch ranked fourth within the NFL since Week 8, when he returned. Watson had 5 receiving touchdowns since Week 11, tied with Davante Adams for probably the most within the NFL over that span.
“Since Christian’s been again from his rehab, he is achieved some nice issues and been that explosive playmaker that we wanted,” Love stated. “With him going out, I feel we nonetheless obtained loads of depth in that receiver room and different guys that performed loads of ball and might step up and make performs. I feel we’ll haven’t any downside filling that void if he is obtained to overlook time.”
The Packers additionally completed the sport with out proper sort out Zach Tom and security Evan Williams, each of whom sustained knee accidents, however neither is believed to be a long-term harm.
