Buccaneers center Ryan Jensen heroically returned from a serious knee injury in 2022. Over a year later, he was unable to play.
As noted by Rick Stroud of Tampa Bay TimesJensen He did not have surgery after tearing three knee ligaments during training camp in 2022. Instead, Jensen received “stem cell treatments from the umbilical cords of babies delivered by caesarean section in Antigua”. (This sounds more like a magic Mad Libs mushroom than a medical procedure.)
The non-surgical option allowed Jensen to play last year. Apparently, this did not allow him to continue his career.
Everything about Jensen’s injury has been covered in a mysterious layer of secrecy from the start. They never said wait, citing swelling in the knee. They never said he chose an unorthodox treatment regimen. Given that the unorthodox treatment regimen was apparently unorthodox for a reason, it’s hard not to wonder if certain forces within the 2022 Buccaneers were driving Jensen to do whatever he had to do to be able to play at some point during the season. Regular season or postseason, no matter what that might mean for 2023.
Assuming he is released in the offseason, Jensen will end up getting $26.5 million for one game. But don’t blame him for that. It is one of the benefits of playing well enough to be safe against major injury.
However, it’s hard not to wonder if Jensen would have been ready to go in 2023 if he had just put it off in 2022 and had surgery. In the end, the team seemed to be OK with this approach, so they couldn’t be bothered with Jensen about it now.
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