It appears as though the Miami Dolphins may have suffered their first significant injury of the 2021 season. The Dolphins have seen plenty of players dinged up and miss time thus far in camp — DeVante Parker, Will Fuller, Jaelan Phillips, Xavien Howard and others are just a handful of names who had bumps and bruises to either open camp or been endured along the way.
But the dreaded cart has made an appearance at Baptist Health Training Complex, an ominous sign for any player it arrives for.
In the case of the Miami Dolphins today, rookie tight end Hunter Long reportedly got shoved out of play during an 11 on 11 period and crumpled to the field, where trainers inspected his left knee before loading him onto the cart. Long reportedly could not put any weight on his leg in the immediate aftermath of the injury.
Long not putting any weight on left leg as he’s helped to cart and taken off the field. https://t.co/1EB9gzQdZm
— David Furones (@DavidFurones_) August 8, 2021
This has the potential to be a tough blow for the Dolphins; as the team clearly had visions for the Boston College product when they drafted him with a top-100 pick and spurned other potential positions of need. If Long is forced to miss any significant amount of time, the Dolphins will fall back onto the incumbents of 2020: Mike Gesicki, Adam Shaheen and Durham Smythe.
The good news if that is the case is that the 2020 Dolphins tight end room was one of the most productive receiving groups in the history of the franchise at the tight end position.
We’ll wait for now until we get more information about Long’s injury. This is obviously going to be a developing story and one that has implications on the Dolphins’ active roster and distribution of snaps among the team’s tight end group. The Dolphins will undoubtedly be hoping for more of a scare than anything else.