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Houston Bates Officially Out For The Season With Torn ACL
The injuries keep piling up for the Washington Redskins. On Monday night, they lost key special teamer and depth edge rusher Houston Bates to an ACL tear.
As if the loss to the Carolina Panthers on Monday night was not enough, the Washington Redskins continued to dole out bad news on Tuesday afternoon. After leaving the game with a knee injury, star special teams player Houston Bates was diagnosed with a torn ACL. The injury will cause him to miss the rest of the 2016 season. The news was first reported by the Washington Redskins Twitter.
In the short term, missing Bates will not hurt a lot. The team has a strong group of special teams players and Bates’ production can be replaced. That said, this injury could have long term ramifications for the team, and it could run them thin at the edge rusher position.
Though Bates has barely played at the linebacker position, he is the fourth player at the position on the depth chart. Ryan Kerrigan suffered an elbow sprain in the loss, and he was clearly not at 100 percent after getting banged up. The team is going to want to spell him more, and they will have to use Preston Smith and Trent Murphy to do so.
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However, if Kerrigan was to miss any time, the aforementioned duo would be the only two left at the position. They would have no true backup without Bates. Granted, they can always add another edge rusher, but they do not currently have a player of that position on the practice squad. That means that they will essentially have to sign someone off the street and hope that they are ready to play if called upon. At this point in the season, there are not many quality options, which could be bad news for the Redskins.
Also, Bates’ injury came late enough in the year that it could impact his availability for the 2017 campaign. Bates may not be fully healthy at the beginning of the season, and he may have to start the year on the PUP list. If that happens, he actually could lose his job. The Redskins may look for some extra depth anticipating Bates to miss time, and that could be bad news for the second year player.
At the end of the day, this is a tough situation for both sides. Hopefully Bates can be better for 2017, but nothing is guaranteed in the NFL. If he can get fully healthy over the offseason, he should reprise his role as a key member of the special teams unit.
