Jaguars Place Jay Tufele on Designated to Return List
After a pre-game injury led to hand surgery and several weeks on injured reserve, it appears Jacksonville Jaguars rookie defensive tackle Jay Tufele is getting close to returning to the field.
The Jaguars placed Tufele on the team's IR/Designated for Return list, which gives the rookie fourth-rounder 21 days to return to the active roster. Center Brandon Linder and tight end James O'Shaughnessy were each placed on the list last week.
At any time after the conclusion of the third game after a player was placed on Reserve/Injured or Reserve/Non-Football Injury/Illness, the team is permitted to return him to practice for a period not to exceed 21 days. If a player does not return to the active roster after these 21 days, he will return to inactive list for the rest of the season.
Tufele played sparingly for the Jaguars before his injury, playing just 13 snaps in his lone active game in Week 5. Tufele was activated for Week 6 vs. the Dolphins and was slated to have a role in the defensive rotation, but he sustained a hand injury during pre-game drills and would later require surgery.
“Jay [Tufele] played solid the week before. He’s been practicing well. Unfortunately, he got injured in pregame, but he’s been coming along well," Jaguars defensive coordinator Joe Cullen said in the days following the injury and Week 6 victory.
“[It happened] just in certain situations in warmups and stuff like that. It’s happened before to me with a guy," Cullen said.
"Well, that’s part of the NFL. It’s not like college where you can just pull a guy and say, ‘You’re up in line.’ It happened a couple years ago in Baltimore. Houston had one of their DBs coming out [of] his zone and he ran into a guy and tore his ACL, so they were down a DB. Unfortunately, it’s a tough break, but we just had to fight through it, and we did.”
Tufele didn't play during the first month of the season in large part due to the Jaguars have a deep rotation of interior defensive lineman. The rookie impressed the Jaguars' staff in his Week 5 snaps, but it should be noted moving forward that the Jaguars' interior line is even deeper now than it was in Week 6.
“I just think it’s a deep position. I think he’s doing well, and he was close to getting up, but when you look at the type of team we were playing, they were going to be in a lot of four wideout sets," Cullen said ahead of Week 5. If it was a different deal where they were going to be three tight ends a lot or running the ball a lot at two backs, there was a good chance he could’ve been up, but he’s progressing well.”
