Will Levis injury details revealed, shoulder expert provides analysis on potential timeline for Titans QB
The Tennessee Titans head into their bye week with two stars needing time off to nurse their injuries. QB Will Levis was forced to the bench early in Week 3 after landing hard on his throwing shoulder, and DT Jeffery Simmons was a late scratch ahead of the Monday Night Football game with an elbow […]
The Tennessee Titans head into their bye week with two stars needing time off to nurse their injuries.
QB Will Levis was forced to the bench early in Week 3 after landing hard on his throwing shoulder, and DT Jeffery Simmons was a late scratch ahead of the Monday Night Football game with an elbow injury.
An update on Will Levis' shoulder was reported Thursday afternoon by Paul Kuharsky, whose source said Levis would be questionable to play if they had a game this week. However, he's expected to be good to go for Week 6 against the Indianapolis Colts despite likely still being in some pain.
A to Z Sports had a chance to sit down and discuss this injuries with Dr. Ian Byram of The Tennessee Bone & Joint Institute, who specializes in shoulders and elbows. You can watch the full conversation with him in the video linked below!
Dr. Byram began by setting the table on what an AC joint is, and what an AC joint injury looks like:
"AC stands for acromioclavicular joint, so it's where your collarbone meets your shoulder blade. When you have a shoulder separation it means an injury to the AC joint and there's really a lot of variability in that. There are grades one to six, and it can vary from a low grade, grade one, where you injure the ligament superficially, or it can be a grade two through six, where you also injure the ligaments that help hold the collarbone (clavicle) down. Generally speaking, it's around grade three where it differentiates your treatment and recovery time. If you have a low-grade AC separation, that means that some of the ligaments are injured, but you generally can have enough stability to be active sooner. If you have a high grade, that's when you see somebody coming off the field and their collarbone sticking up in a different direction. Those are the ones that take longer to heal non-surgically, or we start talking about a surgery, which would then put them out for the season."
We didn't have any insight into the grade of Levis' injury during our conversation with Dr. Byram. Since then, Paul Kuharsky reported on The Paul Kuharsky Podcast that he suffered a Grade 2 separation.
This is good news for the Titans and fits with his reported timetable to return. But does an AC joint injury often coincide with other structural damage to the shoulder? Dr. Byram explains:
"Typically, and fortunately, it is usually isolated to the AC joint. The mechanism by which it happens is typically falling directly on it. We see this in football players and especially even quarterbacks. When they get blindsided, they land directly on that shoulder and it's a compressive-type injury. Sometimes you'll see a coexisting labral tear, which part of the ball and socket joint, but generally speaking, this is going to be isolated to up above the ball and socket where the collarbone meets the shoulder. That part of your shoulder doesn't have to rotate quite as much for a throwing motion. It's certainly a little easier to get over an AC joint injury, especially if it's low grade, than an injury to your rotator cuff or labrum."
So what should Will Levis be doing over his bye week to recover as quickly as possible? Well, as Dr. Byrum explains, not much: "Rest is a big part of this. And then other modalities such as cryotherapy are ways to get that swelling and inflammation down."
Finally, we asked the doctor what risks Levis will run if he returns too soon.
"I don't worry as much about a re-aggravation from throwing as much as I do of a re-injury. If you take a second hit to that already somewhat tenuous joint and those ligaments are already a little bit unstable, then you run the risk of taking it from a low grade and making it a high grade. That's where you really have to get muscle control and motion back so that you can adequately protect yourself, and we've seen this with a number of athletes."
While it's great news that a re-aggravation isn't a major concern, it requires Levis staying clean in (and out of) the pocket. While he won't aggravate it throwing, he may very well hurt it worse if he falls on it again soon.
This sparked a major debate on the AtoZ Morning Show Thursday: Should the Titans ride with Rudolph in Week 6 in order to make sure Levis heals up enough to play out the rest of the season? You can listen to that discussion here:
The bottom line appears to be that Levis will return in Week 6 as long as he is at least close to healthy again, for better or for worse. The Titans are determined to keep getting him as many reps as possible. If he can stay upright (which is a big "if"!) he should be fine after their bye.
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