If you haven’t seen the video of Alex Smith’s leg injury, consider yourself lucky.
Washington’s quarterback was carted off the field after suffering a leg injury during Sunday’s game against Houston. It was an injury that looked severe in real time and it had a diagnosis that matched:
The bad news the #Redskins were dreading: QB Alex Smith will have surgery right away on a broken tibia and fibula. A stellar season is over.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 18, 2018
As Brett pointed out to me earlier in the afternoon, Smith’s leg injury came 33 years to the day of Joe Theismann suffering what turned out to be a career-ending leg injury when he was taken down by Lawrence Taylor. We certainly hope this won’t be the case for Smith, who was having a solid season for a rejuvenated Washington football club. And while the comparisons are unavoidable, at least David J. Chao, a practicing orthopedic surgeon and former NFL team head doctor, believes Smith’s injury shouldn’t be a career-ending one. That’s a relief.
Head Coach Jay Gruden addressed the injury after the game:
"When you have an injury like that, it's more heartbreaking than it is physical." – Jay Gruden on Alex Smith @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/PREwurRLw4
— NBC4 Sports (@NBC4Sports) November 18, 2018
As for the football side of things, Smith’s injury has major implications. First, Washington will need to sign another quarterback because backup Colt McCoy was the only other one on the active roster entering Sunday’s game. Second, the team will need to pull together in short order because it has a quick turnaround with a Thursday game against Dallas that kicks off a grueling stretch of games for the NFC East leaders.
Washington is 6-4 and holding on to a one-game lead atop the division, but has road games against Dallas and Philadelphia coming up, followed by a home tilt against New York in three weeks. It’s quite possible the NFC East could very well be decided by this stretch of games. If not, then it’s worth knowing that four of the last six games on Washington’s schedule are against divisional rivals.
This was probably going to be a rough ride, but losing the most important player before entering the stretch makes it that much more difficult.