Looking at recent reports, Ryan Tannenhill looks like he will be playing in the 2017-18 NFL season. What's holding him back from being the first game starter? My opinion: pure fear by the organization. Recent MRI shows no structural damage, so why such a poor initial prognosis for the Miami QB. Watching the practice video a few days ago where he went down after his knee buckled, it kind of reminded me of Derrick Rose injuring his knee during a game without a player around. Why do these players get injured without a real mechanism of injury. The real diagnosis: lack of proprioception in the knee. Prognosis on this type of injury depends on how he deals with it. A surgeon might go in and clean up the knee or he might get the all curing stem cell treatment again (how did that go the first time around). Watching a video of him walking in June 2017 makes me he will need more than stem cells.
In December 2016, Tannenhill was diagnosed with a partial MCL and ACL tear after being hit by a Cardinal linesmen Calais Campbell. Since then, he has been taking weight off the leg and putting more on the right. In the June 2017 video (just a few months after being declared healthy by most NFL insiders), Ryan can be seen favoring his right leg in standing and unable to fully weight bear through the left leg as shown by a trunk lean to the left side when putting weight through the left leg.
At the end of the day: He will come back earlier than expected, but unless he fixes the real issues going on, I don't see him being on the field for too long. If he makes it through the whole season, I would be shocked.
The Injury Analyst is a blog dedicated to not only explaining injuries that have occurred, but predicting and highlighting future injury risks for professional athletes. You can email us at info@jamsportsandspine.com
Note: I have not seen the subject of this article personally in clinic, rather all views and opinions of the author have been made based off of video footage of the athlete. This article is not meant as a diagnosis or a treatment plan.