Well... that sucks. Hopefully he can use a year of rehab to try to add 10-20 pounds of muscle and come in next year ready to compete for an every-down role, but that sounds pretty optimistic based on the injury. Hate seeing guys who are already projects get injuries like this so early in their careers, a lot of careers get derailed entirely because these injuries put them so far behind the growth curve that they never catch up. I still think that's what happened to Tyrone McKenzie, who in an alternate universe where he never had his rookie ACL tear I think is still a solid LB somewhere.
As for what this means to the 2017 team, Grissom's got to be feeling better about his chances at making the 53, and Wise being a rotation-caliber player early on just went from something we kinda need to something we absolutely need. Barring a trade or picking up a veteran castoff--which should happen, but given that the cutdown to 75 no longer exists may be harder to pull off than it has been in past years--it looks like Flowers, Ealy, Wise and Grissom are our top four, and the latter 3 have proven basically nothing at the NFL level. Could work out, but not really a recipe for success. Maybe Belichick can convince Ninkovich to come back midseason, if our lack of DE talent is killing us.
