Houston Texans WR Tank Dell was carted off the field after suffering a significant knee injury in his team’s 27-19 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs Saturday.
Dell, who had 6 catches for 98 yards and a touchdown prior to going down, had to be taken to a local hospital after teammate Jared Wayne collided with him in the end zone on his score. The 25 year old was in visible pain immediately, as teammates called for the training staff who didn’t hesitate to bring out the cart.
According to head coach DeMeco Ryans, the injury is “significant” and he will require an overnight stay at the hospital for further evaluation. “Quick update on Tank: Tank had a significant knee injury and he’ll be staying here in Kansas City overnight getting further evaluations and we’ll get an update tomorrow on him,” said Ryans.
“All of our thoughts and prayers are with Tank right now. You guys see what he means to our entire team. It hurts to see him go down like that. He was having a fantastic game, playing really well for us. He was in a really great spot. And we just want to keep him in our thoughts and prayer right now.”
While the loss to Kansas City hurts, seeing their teammate, especially one as beloved as Dell, go down had a profound effect on the Texans players. QB CJ Stroud was seen in tears following the injury, as was fellow WR Nico Collins who struggled to find the words to adequately describe the situation postgame.
“That s— hurts. It hurts,” Collins said. “We know how much he meant to this team. But losing one of your brothers, man, it hurts. Speedy recovery for my dog. Mentally he’s going through it, but we have to keep stepping, keep climbing for him.”
Unfortunately for the former University of Houston standout, it’s not the first significant lower body injury of his young NFL career. The month of December has been particularly cruel to Dell who suffered a fractured fibula on December 3rd against the Denver Broncos, ultimately cutting his rookie campaign short.
According to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the initial prognosis is a dislocated knee cap. While evaluations are ongoing, season ending surgery is the most likely outcome at the moment for the speedy wideout.
While the Texans may have already clinched the AFC South title, losing a key contributor such as Dell doesn’t bode well for their postseason plans. The club is already without WR Stefon Diggs who went down earlier this year with a season ending knee injury, and Collins has been dealing with a variety of injuries throughout the season as well.
Things don’t get any easier for Houston next week as they’ll play host to the visiting Baltimore Ravens in a 4:30pm ET Christmas Day showdown.
Photo: Million Dollaz Worth of Game. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.