Jayden Reed Injury Update:
In a surprising twist of events, the Green Bay Packers have announced that WR Jayden Reed will undergo both collarbone and foot surgeries this week. Surgery to fix the broken collarbone Reed sustained in the week 2 win over the Commanders comes as no surprise after Reed left the field in significant pain after landing on his shoulder. The surprise is the addition of surgery for a Jones fracture in his foot. Good news for both the Packers and anyone with Reed in a dynasty league is that the recovery from a Jones fracture surgery can be around 8 weeks, similar to recovery from collarbone surgery. Getting both fixed at once save him losing time to recovering twice.
Jones Fractures
A Jones fracture is a common foot injury in athletes, where there’s a break near the closest end of the long bone along the outside of the foot, which meets up with the pinky toe. The reason this injury is so common in athletes is that it happens with a lot of force through foot while standing on the toes combined with a twisting motion. Since receivers tend to land on their toes and immediately pivot to get up field, it’s no surprise Jones fractures are more common in this position group than any other. To fix a Jones fracture, the current gold standard procedure is a screw that runs lengthwise through the middle of the bone, stabilizing the break. Other options for treatment include a plate on the bone, or non-surgical management in a walking boot. Both these options have longer recovery times and non-surgical treatment has a higher likelihood of incomplete healing.1
NFL injury research shows that the majority of NFL receivers are able to return to play after Jones fracture surgery, however performance on the field can be affected by returning too soon. Players who returned to the field in less than 10 weeks showed a drop in performance of about 53% compared to before surgery in their first few games back, whereas spending 10 weeks or more on recovery showed a small improvement in performance compared to before surgery. 1
To sum it up, better the Reed gets the foot taken care of while he’s out of commission for his shoulder injury anyways. If the Packers continue how they’ve started through the first 2 weeks of the season, they should be poised for a deep playoff run.
- Attia AK, Taha T, Kong G, Alhammoud A, Mahmoud K, Myerson M. Return to Play and Fracture Union After the Surgical Management of Jones Fractures in Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. The American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2021;49(12):3422-3436. doi:10.1177/0363546521990020
