The Jets’ adversity-free summer of tranquility took a severe twist for the worst yesterday.
A twist to John Abraham’s left knee, to be exact.
Yes, it’s true. Camp Happiness at Weeb Ewbank Hall has suddenly turned into Camp Concern.
On the third play in yesterday’s afternoon “mock scrimmage” session that Herman Edwards conducted to change the monotonous pace of two-a-days, Abraham, the Jets’ best defensive player, sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee when another player rolled on him.
The injury occurred during a goal-line play with a pile of players falling to the ground. Abraham writhed in pain on the ground for several moments and was quickly administered to by head trainer Dave Price and team physician, Dr. Elliot Pellman.
Abraham was eventually helped into the trainer’s room in the building, where he was evaluated by the trainers and doctor. Jets GM Terry Bradway went inside to visit Abraham, who went to the Pro Bowl last season – his second in the NFL – after making 13 sacks in the regular season.
After the practice was over, Herman Edwards said Abraham will undergo an MRI tomorrow and that there was no timetable for how long he might be out of action.
“I don’t want to predict how long he’ll be out,” Edwards said. “I don’t know when he’s coming back.”
Simply by virtue of the sprained MCL – with hopes that tomorrow’s MRI shows there is no tear – it looks like Abraham will be out a couple to few weeks at least. Realistically, he could miss the regular-season opener on Sept. 8 in Buffalo.
If there is a tear, Abraham could be out a significant amount of time; the worst possible scenario is that the injury is season-ending.
The pall that has fallen over camp is reminiscent of a year ago, when starting nose tackle Jason Ferguson, the anchor of the defensive line, went down for the season with a rotator cuff injury and the team’s No. 1 pick, receiver Santana Moss, hurt his knee during a training camp intra-squad scrimmage.
The loss of Abraham does one thing immediately: It puts No. 1 draft pick Bryan Thomas in the spotlight.
Thomas, who was drafted out of Alabama-Birmingham, has been working behind Abraham at right defensive end. He, like Abraham, is a player with terrific pass- rushing potential.
The difference between the two is that Abraham, with 4½ sacks in six games his rookie year and then another 13 in 16 games last year, is a proven commodity.
Abraham’s rookie season was cut short after six games because of an abdominal injury.
The Jets were hoping to work Thomas in slowly, using him on the left side opposite Abraham in passing situations with hopes of wreaking havoc on opposing quarterbacks.
Now, as long as Abraham is out of action, Thomas will be forced to accelerate his development.
Up until now, Thomas has had the luxury of staying below the radar in terms of spotlight and pressure. That all changes now.
“We expect him to get better every week,” Edwards said of Thomas. “There’s a lot to learn. The left tackle he’s running against, [Jason] Fabini, he understands angles. [Thomas] isn’t going to run past him every play. He probably realized that in the first minicamp, when he tried to speed rush Fabini. All of a sudden he was out there on Fulton Avenue. That’s the process the young guys go through.”
That process for Thomas just got accelerated as the Jets’ brass holds its collective breath for the results of Abraham’s MRI test tomorrow.
