Packers at. Panthers Thursday Injury Update: Luke Musgrave Starts His Resurrection
Green Bay, Wisconsin – Luke Musgrave, the tight end for the Green Bay Packers, was cleared to come off injured reserve on Thursday after suffering a lacerated kidney just over a month ago.
Musgrave will therefore not be included in the 53-man roster for the first 21 days of his practice window, which has now begun. Typically, a player gets three weeks to go back on the field or return on injured reserve for the duration of the campaign.
But given that the Packers (6-8) have dropped two straight games to exit the seven-team playoff chase, it’s feasible that the season will finish before those twenty-one days are up.
Naturally, I’d love to see him play and be cautiously optimistic at the same time. I’m not sure when that moment will arrive, stated head coach Matt LaFleur.
Musgrave’s comeback will be gradual considering the gravity of his injury and the effect it has on his level of fitness. On Thursday, he didn’t really participate in exercises with his other tight ends.
It was fantastic, LaFleur agreed. He was jogging and catching some balls with the trainers when I last spoke to him. He’s getting better. I will simply leave it at that.
Musgrave, a second-round selection in this year’s draft, caught 33 catches for 341 yards and one touchdown in 10 games.
Bubba Franks set a rookie tight end record in Packers history with 34 receptions for 363 yards. If Musgrave hadn’t been hurt against the Chargers on November 19, he would have completely erased those marks.
He was expected to end the season with 56 receptions for 617 yards based on his weekly output. Those records would have placed third (Jermichael Finley, 61; Richard Rodgers, 58) and tenth, respectively, among all Packers tight ends in franchise history.
Having recently had two of his greatest games in terms of impact plays—51 yards against the Rams and 64 yards against the Steelers—it would have been intriguing to see how much further Musgrave might have taken his numbers.
Luke shares their love of football with the other guys. Love football, really,” he remarked this week. He wouldn’t have it this way, but since you’re not really playing the game, you have to take a step back—or at least be forced to—and perhaps change the way you view it. Being able to observe it, monitor it, and examine it through a new lens, I believe, was beneficial to him. He’s a wonderful young man.
“It goes back to the character,” he said. “You’ve got to stay involved in this game mentally as much as physically, because there’s a lot of moving pieces that go into it. Whenever you relax mentally, sometimes that part takes a little bit to get back into. Like, ‘Oh, OK, I forgot about that little tidbit.’ You’ve got to stay involved.”
Dunn went on, hammering home his message again on the platform. “The men in that room are the right men because of who they are.” “It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest what they do physically because of the mental attack they employ.”
Musgrave was not alone among the five players that skipped practice. Linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, safety Darnell Savage (shoulder), wide Christian Watson (hamstring), and receiving Jayden Reed (toe) were all out for the second day in a row. Caleb Jones, an offensive tackle, was added to the injury list and did not participate in practice.
