Chargers Crippling Injuries Continue: CB J.C. Jackson Out For Season, WR Mike Williams to Miss Weeks
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Throughout the Chargers' 37-23 loss to the Seahawks at SoFi Stadium, the injury bug continued to hit their roster. Cornerback J.C. Jackson was carted off the field with an air cast placed on his right leg and wide receiver Mike Williams required help from the medical staff to walk as he couldn’t put pressure on his right ankle.
The worst of the team's fears became a reality following further tests that confirmed both players' injuries are rather significant.
Jackson has a rupture to his patella tendon and will miss the remainder of the season and Williams has a high ankle sprain in which he'll be sidelined for weeks.
The Chargers will turn to Michael Davis in place of their high-priced cornerback singing, who they reached a five-year, $82.5 million contract with back in March. Davis, a starter for the Chargers during the previous four seasons, has made two starts this year during Jackson's absence early on due to an ankle injury.
Chargers coach Brandon Staley announced the severity of the injuries on Monday when speaking with reporters via Zoom, but refrained from giving a definitive timeline for Williams' road back.
"I'm gonna reserve judgment on that," Staley said when asked how long Williams will be out. "I don't think that I've been with Mike with this type of injury. So I don't want to speculate, but like I said, weeks, not days."
At wide receiver, looking to mask the loss of Williams, the Chargers are already injury-riddled at the position. Keenan Allen just appeared in his first game back following a six week absence from a hamstring injury, but he didn’t play a snap during the final two quarters.
"As the game progressed throughout that second quarter, he just didn't feel like he could burst the way he wanted to and didn't want to risk anything," Staley said of Allen's usage against the Seahawks. "No setback yesterday, but didn't want to push it."
The Chargers wide receiver group had already lost Jalen Guyton for the season with a torn ACL and Joshua Palmer remains in concussion protocol. It's going to be tough sledding no matter how they piece together their pass-catching group.
"That group has been banged up," Staley said when asked how he views the state of his wide receiver group. "It hasn't played together very much. That's for sure. So we're trying to get Keenan back fully healthy, try to get Josh back and then with Mike, hopefully that recovery happens sooner than later. But I don't think that we've been able to truly evaluate this group because it hasn't played together very much.
"We got to make improvements for sure on our whole offensive football team. But I really want to see that group out there together playing because that hasn't been able to happen yet so far this season."
The NFL trade deadline sits eight days away and with the pass-catching group banged up to such a great extent, the team could opt to look externally for reinforcements.
“We’ll take the next couple of days and be able to get with [General Manager] Tom [Telesco], [Owner and Chairman of the Board] Dean [Spanos] and [President of Football Operations] John [Spanos] and make those types of discussions happen," Staley said of the consideration to explore the trade market. "We are always going to look for avenues to enhance our team and make it better. If those avenues are possible, then we’ll definitely explore them.”
The Chargers enter their bye week with a 4-3 record where they hope to rest up before heading to Atlanta in Week 9 to face the Falcons.
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Read more from Charger Report:
- 5 Takeaways From Chargers' 37-23 Week 7 Loss to Seahawks
- Chargers' Win Streak Ends in 37-23 Loss to Seahawks
- Live In-Game Updates: Chargers vs. Seahawks Week 7
- Pregame Report: Chargers vs. Seahawks Week 7
- Chargers vs. Seahawks Week 7 Game Prediction
Nick Cothrel is the publisher of Charger Report. Follow Nick on Twitter @NickCothrel for more Chargers coverage.
