Tag: knee

Here’s why Broncos QB Drew Lock wears a knee brace

“[It’s] just a security blanket in the back of my mind to have,” Broncos quarterback Drew Lock said of his knee brace.

Broncos quarterback Drew Lock wore a big brace on his left knee Sunday, which was a shock to some fans in Denver. Lock was on the injury report last week but that was for an illness, not a knee injury.

There’s no reason for alarm.

Lock has actually been wearing the brace in every game. Because the team’s Color Rush uniforms are slimming, he decided to wear the brace on top of his socks instead of underneath them in Week 16. The rookie also wore the brace in previous games, it was just less visible.

Lock has been wearing a brace dating back to his time at Missouri.

“My junior year [against] Vanderbilt, I almost got rolled up on,” Lock said after Sunday’s 27-17 win over the Lions. “It was enough to scare me into wearing the brace. I’ll run around.

“I’ve been running around. I’ve had the brace on all year, and I don’t think it’s stopped me very much. I think I move pretty well with it. Just a security blanket in the back of my mind to have.”

Wearing a brace is a mental decision as much as it is a physical one.

Lock will wear the brace again against the Raiders in Week 17.

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Nick Bawden placed on injured reserve

The Detroit Lions have announced that they have placed fullback Nick Bawden on injured reserve with a knee injury. This is the second season in a row where Bawden’s season has ended prematurely due to a knee injury.

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The Detroit Lions have announced that they have placed fullback Nick Bawden on injured reserve with a knee injury. This is the second season in a row where Bawden’s season has ended prematurely due to a knee injury.

Bawden’s rookie season was also cut short after he tore his ACL in mini-camp and was placed on injured reserve.

Coming out of this year’s training camp, expectations were high for Bawden as offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell found new and creative ways to use him in the game plan. As the regular season rolled around, much of those creative plays were subdued and in 10 games Bawden only had four catches for 17 yards.

Of course, he did do this:

 

The Lions backfield has been injured all season and losing their fullback will surely have implications on an already struggling run game.

On Tuesday the Lions worked out four fullbacks — Derrick Coleman, Tommy Bohannon, Tre Madden, and Aaron Ripkowski, per Adam Caplan — but did not sign any at this time.

One in-house option to replace is rookie tight end Isaac Nauta who is currently on the Lions practice squad. Nauta played some H-Back in college and even took snaps at fullback for the Lions in the offseason. It wouldn’t be overly surprising to see the Lions work with Nauta as the fullback in practice this week, then promote him to the active roster later in the week (the Lions typically make these moves on Saturday).