When Richard Sherman will return to the field for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers became a little clearer on Tuesday.
Sherman’s MRI on Tuesday revealed a grade 2 calf strain according to a source via NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. The Bucs cornerback will miss “a few weeks”, Rapoport reported.
Sherman strained his calf during warmups before the Bucs’ game at Washington on Sunday and didn’t play. Cornerback Dee Delaney played instead for the Bucs.
“I doubt seriously if he’ll be back anytime soon,” Bucs head coach Bruce Arians told the media on Monday. “He was fine Thursday and Friday. I thought he was going to have a heck of a ballgame. He just strained his calf before the ballgame, so don’t know how long it’ll be.”
Orthopedic surgeon Lutul Farrow told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2015 that “typically it takes a few weeks to a month of inactivity for a moderate, or Grade 2, calf strain to heal” but could go faster depending on the car provided. The Cleveland Clinic Sports Health doctor, and former Cleveland Browns team doctor, shared that with Journal Sentinel writer Tom Silverstein regarding a similar injury to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers at the time.
Sherman joined the Bucs as a free agent in late September for $1 million. He played three games in 11 days without training camp or weeks of practice. He sustained a hamstring injury at Philadelphia in Week 6 and looked set to return after the Week 9 bye.
Relief Coming for Bucs Secondary?
Sherman’s injury puts a damper on the secondary getting healthy, but the Bucs could get another starter back soon.
Tampa Bay tabbed injured cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting to potentially come off injured reserve via the 21-day practice window last week. He practiced but didn’t play at Washington. Murphy-Bunting could return for the Monday Night Football game against the New York Giants according to Pewter Report.
“It was a long eight weeks,” Murphy-Bunting said last week per Sports Illustrated’s All Bucs. “Coming out here every day just putting my head down and really just trying to get back to being on the field and being able to contribute with the guys that I started with. That’s been my main goal this entire process is just doing everything I can to get back with them.”
Long Ways to Go Toward Healthy Secondary
Even if Murphy-Bunting returns by Week 11, the Bucs have a ways to go for getting healthy in the defensive backfield.
Bucs cornerback Carlton Davis III landed on injured reserve due to a quad injury in Week 4 and hasn’t returned. The Bucs also recently moved backup cornerback Rashard Robinson to injured reserve due to a hamstring injury.
Added to all of that, the Bucs lost Delaney at Washington to a concussion in the third quarter. He will have to clear concussion protocol to return.
That leaves the Bucs with corners Jamel Dean, Ross Cockrell, and Pierre Desir to hold down the fort. Tampa Bay only has one more corner, Blidi Wreh-Wilson, on the practice squad.
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