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Going into the season, it’s likely that not a whole lot of Kansas City Chiefs fans would have guessed that after five weeks, wide receiver Justin Watson would be leading his position group in receiving yards. But going into last Thursday’s Week 6 game against the Denver Broncos, that’s exactly the position Watson held.
In the game’s fourth quarter, quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw him a deep pass that was just a little too long, bouncing right off Watson’s fingertips. But as he went down after laying out for the ball, the wide receiver was in obvious pain from what appeared to be a significant injury to his left elbow.
The injury was later reported to be a dislocated elbow that could keep him sidelined for a few weeks. Since X-rays and an MRI test results had been reported to be negative for structural damage, our Dakota Watson (no relation) suggested it was possible the wideout could be back for the Week 9 game against the Miami Dolphins in Frankfurt, Germany. But he also noted that the team typically doesn’t tend to rush players back — meaning that a Week 11 return (following Kansas City’s bye week) would be more likely.
This suggested that Watson might be out for as many as four weeks. That opened the possibility the team might put him on its Reserve/Injured (injured reserve) list. That would open a roster spot for defensive end Charles Omenihu, who is now set to return to the active roster after his six-game suspension.
Now, however, it appears that Watson’s injury isn’t as serious as it had first been reported.
“Justin Watson has an elbow contusion,” said Kansas City head coach Andy Reid as he opened his press session on Wednesday — essentially describing a bruise. “He won’t practice today. We’ll just see how he does here as we go down the road.”
As usual, Reid was pretty vague about Watson’s injury. But when asked if Watson would be back before the minimum four-week period players must remain on IR, Reid gave a clear answer.
“Before then,” he said simply.
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