Other than losing your franchise quarterback, there isn’t much more of a worst case scenario than losing your starting left tackle. While the severity of the injury is unknown, the Bucs could be facing the prospect of Donovan Smith missing time this season.
In a year with so much on the line, it most likely means some sleepless nights for the organization.
Smith was caught up in a pile and appeared to have his leg rolled up on. Practice stopped for a few minutes as Smith stayed down while being attended to by trainers. He was eventually helped up with assistance and taken to the locker room where he didn’t come back at at any point on Tuesday.
Following practice, head coach Dirk Koetter said he couldn’t provide many details.
“We’ll have to see. I’ve said this many times, when guys get hurt during practice they take them in, have the docs look at them and they’ll run their tests and we’ll know something at a later time,” Koetter said.
“That’s probably one of Donovan’s best characteristics. He’s very reliable and he’s been very durable over the course of his career so we’ll just have to see. Obviously we hope for the best and we’ll have to see what happens.”
Right tackle Demar Dotson, who could potentially move to the left side if Smith’s injury is significant, talked about the dog days of camp and how these type of injuries can sometime happen.
“It’s hard because you’re at the end of training camp, it gets sloppy and guys are tired,” Dotson said. “Nobody wants to be out here, that’s just the nature of the beast. You’re tired, you’re hurting, your leg’s dead, so you start to get sloppy. People start falling all over the place, tripping all over people and stuff, and that’s just something you got to work through. As training camp gets harder and harder and you get to the end of it, you got to focus hard not to be sloppy, because that’s what happens man, you get people hurt. I think that’s what happened to Donovan, I think somebody threw them into him and rolled up on him and now you got to see what’s the extent of his injury. You just can’t have that, you can’t have that, that’s not the way to practice, you get guys hurt.”
The Bucs will most likely have to adjust, at the very least through the rest of the preseason, if not longer.
“You have to do what you have do, what I do is the next man up mentality,” Smith said. “Donovan is a key stone to this offensive line, I mean we don’t have nobody that can play left tackle remotely as good as he can play at, that’s just common sense. Hopefully it’s not bad, maybe it’s just a couple weeks or whatever a week or so, so he can be back for the start of the season. That’s what we’re hoping, and if that’s the case we can get by until then. If it’s longer than that, that’s going to be our own blow to us.”
Oh no… #Bucs OT Donovan Smith appeared to be significantly hurt after a run play. Couldn’t get off the ground on his own, limped to the training room with the help of two trainers: pic.twitter.com/H0W3AB6TgP
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) August 21, 2018
Bucs starting left tackle Donovan Smith just got rolled up on in practice, is in some real pain and is visibly upset. Play stopped as trainers tended to him. He was able to walk off the field but limping and with a lot of… https://t.co/xvKiEaKkXd pic.twitter.com/yuy2PrHdZ4
— JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) August 21, 2018
Donovan Smith just went down in a ton of pain. Got up but is having to get help off and is clearly very upset. Could be a very big blow to #Bucs oline. pic.twitter.com/6xP1ZGcYxe
— Trey Downey (@TDExperience) August 21, 2018
Hopefully just a painful ankle sprain and nothing with knee.
Hopefully..
Jesus can we catch a break when it comes to Injuries!?
Crazy. At some point you have to wonder if we need different training conditioning coaches etc. Seems like more than just bad luck.
I’ve said the same thing for years. How do we not look at our medical/ conditioning staff. We have insurmountable injuries almost every damn year
Training and conditioning coach cant help injuries like his. No matter how great of condition you are in, if you get rolled up on, you are going to get hurt. Football is a violent sport. There is going to be injuries. The only injury good conditioning can prevent is pulls, sprains and tears from non contact injuries.
Let’s hope that Licht won’t have to pull another Logan Mankins out of his hat. ‘Cause if he can’t, any small chance we had of the team not being pretty much screwed goes out the window. LT was the position we could least afford an injury.
NOOOO! Seriously the Bucs are so screwed if he goes down for the season. Who is going to take his place?? Benenoch, who can’t even play guard?? Or is it maybe Wester who is I think is out due to injury too? Or do we take the rookie Cappa and throw him into the deep end with weights attached when we try to get him to play RT while Dotson plays LT?! Or, LOL, put CAPPA at LT!!?? I think I’m forgetting someone (Don’t say Seaton! Although, God help the fans if so, we might need him!!) but even so… Read more »
Ugh. Not a fan of Smith’s play but as was noted he is our best LT by far. Wish Licht would have taken the OL more seriously last few years, we were kind of asking for trouble going into the season with so little quality depth. Just thought it would be Dot not Don.
Dotson has trained at LT before and he needs to play there now. Try Cappa at RT with Seaton standing by if there is trouble. Until then if Benenoch is still hurt, put in Holcomb at RG and see how he does. If he can’t handle it, Evan Smith can play the best there. Dotson has been our best Offensive Lineman for years and I think he can do a better job than D. Smith. If that is so, when D. Smith does come back try him at LG and put Marpet at RG and you will have a better… Read more »
Can barely count on Dotson to play right tackle.
Surprised Bucassbob hasn’t chimed in and blamed Smith for being out of shape like Veas lower leg injury. Get rolled up on and get injured must be out of shape right? Lol.
I hope this is not as serious as it appears to be. Butt…Next man Up. Other teams plug in replacements and never miss a beat. We should be no exception. Every year for us its the..Coulda..Woulda..Shoulda show. Enough!! The NFl is about Winning. You want more network coverage? better game slotting? ( NFL Network been showin Tenn/Bucs at 4am on the east coast and 1 am out west all week long) Then you gotta WIN. No excuses Bucs. Win or stay on the porch!!
This team had so Nantes holes to full. Getting there on d line now time to build some depth on O line. It’s been shit for years now.
Meant So many holes
Owly I agree with the basic idea of Smith at LG giving is a stout interior but as many have been saying for the last year or two we need(ed) to draft not one but two true OTs to succeed now and in the next few years.
We all just have to cross our fingers that Don & Dot can stay on the field this year and then draft at least one OT in the first or second round and one more in the third or fourth.