Jets Place George Fant on Injured Reserve With Season-Ending Knee Injury
George Fant's impressive season is over.
After injuring his knee in Sunday's loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York has placed the left tackle on injured reserve, ending his season with one more game remaining.
In addition to Fant, the Jets placed defensive lineman Bryce Huff on IR with an ankle injury. Tight end Dan Brown was also moved to the practice squad injured list.
The team announced the handful of roster moves on Tuesday afternoon.
On Monday, head coach Robert Saleh told reporters that Fant was getting a second opinion on his knee and that the team would know more about his status later in the week.
"His ACL is intact, so knock on wood, this is just stuff from a previous knee injury that he’s dealing with," Saleh said.
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When Mekhi Becton went down with a knee injury way back in Week 1, Fant was moved from right tackle to left tackle. He ended up holding it down on the left side for the entire season, starting in all but one game (he was sidelined in Week 15 with a knee injury).
Fant was tremendous over those 15 games in green and white. The 29-year-old allowed only one sack all season, according to Pro Football Focus.
With one game to play and nothing truly at stake for the Jets in Week 18 against the Bills in Buffalo, this isn't necessarily a devastating loss for New York. They've already dealt with a slew of injuries up front and across their roster recently, so this is just more adversity for the Jets to deal with in the final week of the regular season.
As a precaution, the Jets claimed another tackle (Greg Senat) off waivers earlier in the week. Now, there's a chance he could be called upon on Sunday.
Otherwise, all New York can do is hope that this injury isn't serious for Fant. The lineman has one more year on his deal with the Jets and depending on Becton's health (along with how New York approaches the NFL draft and free agency), Fant could play a huge role on this team next season.
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