You’d be hard-pressed to find many coaches who are less worried about their top cornerback going down with an injury than Dennis Allen. Even fewer of them would be keeping their cool if that happened in the first week of training camp. And while Allen acknowledged that it is far from an ideal situation, he isn’t piling on Marshon Lattimore after the four-time Pro Bowler suffered a hip flexor injury last week.
“Well, look, I think any time guys have injuries and miss significant time, and then you get to training camp and they’re dealing with something else that’s going to cause them to miss some time, yeah, it’s concerning. And yet, I’m not losing a lot of sleep over it right now,” Allen told local media after Monday’s practice session.
Allen pointed to the team’s depth at corner as a big source of reassurance, leaning on guys like Paulson Adebo, Alontae Taylor, and Kool-Aid McKinstry as some who “can pick up the slack when he’s unavailable.” He’s seen Adebo and Taylor come through when needed, and McKinstry is a fine replacement (if not an outright upgrade) for Isaac Yiadom, who filled in well when Lattimore missed time last year. He’s singled out McKinstry before as someone who stands to gain from extremely valuable practice reps as Lattimore’s immediate backup.
Still, Allen is eager to see Lattimore back in action and playing to be the best of his abilities. He continued: “Certainly I want him to get healthy, I want him back out here, I think he’s a big part of what we do defensively. When we’re at we’re best he’s playing at a high level. And so hopefully he’ll be able to get his rehab done and get back out here sooner rather than later.”
Hip flexor injuries often take at least a week to work out, with the most serious cases sidelining players for up to six weeks. So in a worst-case scenario Lattimore might miss the rest of training camp and the preseason games before being cleared in time for Week 1. If the injury were more severe Allen probably wouldn’t be speaking about it so glibly. We’ll keep an eye out for Lattimore’s return to practice.
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