Marqise Lee injury: Jaguars receiver could be done for the year

When the New York Giants face the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first game of the 2018 regular season, Blake Bortles could be without his top receiving weapon.

Wide receiver Marqise Lee suffered a gruesome-looking knee injury in the first quarter of their third preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons. CB Damontae Kazee hit Lee low, with his helmet hitting Lee’s knee.

The fear now is that Lee suffered torn ligaments and could miss the entire year.

(Note: linked tweet includes video of the injury, which is why it wasn’t embedded)

Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey stated after the game that he doesn’t blame Kazee for the injury, instead taking aim at the new rules regarding lowering the helment.

“It sucks. We are going to have to play for him. You can’t be mad at 27 [Damontae Kazee]. You have to be mad at the NFL; not mad at them but that is how the rule is. People are scared to tackle normal because I guess they don’t want to do helmet-to-helmet and get flagged. That was not even flagged and [you could] potentially get thrown out of the game. Game-changing stuff could happen. You don’t really want to blame anyone, but you feel bad for him. I don’t know, man, that’s just tough to see it happen to one of my teammates, period. But you can’t really blame 27.”

The Giants’ players would never want to face an opponent without their best players on the field, but the match-up does change without Lee stretching the field to contrast the Jaguars’ run game.

The game aside, hopefully Lee will not be sidelined for long and be able to make a quick, and full, recovery.