The Washington Football Team cannot catch a break when it comes to the quarterback position. During the first quarter of their Week 9 matchup against the New York Giants, quarterback Kyle Allen went down with what appeared to be a serious leg injury after being sacked. Immediately, the cart was brought out and he was lifted into the vehicle. Alex Smith, who suffered a serious leg injury of his own a couple of years ago, now replaces him under center.
According to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the initial diagnosis regarding Allen is that he suffered a dislocated ankle. Pelissero was told Allen did suffer a small fracture and that it is still a significant injury, but it is somewhat better than how it looked on replay.
Washington trailed 10-0 when Allen exited the game, and he will finish completing 5 of 7 passes for 62 yards. Smith has seen action in just one game this year, as he replaced Allen in Week 5 against the Los Angeles Rams after Allen suffered a hit to the head area. In that 30-10 loss, Smith completed 9 of 17 passes for 37 yards and was sacked a total of six times.
Smith, 36, suffered a compound fracture in his leg that resulted in a broken tibia and fibula in 2018. The injury was infected with flesh-eating bacteria and required 17 surgeries to repair. His surgical team had cleared him to play prior to the start of Washington's training camp in July. However, the team elected to place him on the physically unable to perform list and ease the former No. 1 overall pick back into the equation.
If Allen has indeed suffered a serious leg injury, it will be interesting to see if Washington head coach Ron Rivera elects to keep Smith under center or go with former starter Dwayne Haskins, who is inactive today. Rivera maintains that he has not given up on Haskins, and it's possible he could end up back in the starting lineup.
"It's funny, I benched the guy and it's like everybody thinks his career is over here in Washington. It's not," Rivera said on The Rich Eisen Show, via JP Finlay of NBC Sports Washington. "There's potential, there's opportunity. The kid has an NFL arm, it's just a matter of him developing. Everybody forgets he played 12 games of college football and then last year he really didn't get into the swing of things until the end of the year. I did everything I could to give him 11 weeks as the No. 1 (quarterback)."
