The Green Bay Packers have endured a laundry list of injuries this season, knocking them from Super Bowl contenders to playoff afterthoughts. The organization and fans officially gave up on their season this week, putting star quarterback Aaron Rodgers on season-ending injured reserve. Some believed that the move would be an offering to the football gods that would stop the relentless flow of medical personnel streaming on to the field during games. They were wrong: just ask Jason Spriggs.
Spriggs springs off the field
On the first play of Saturday night's rivalry game against the Minnesota Vikings, the Green Bay Packers received the kickoff.
On the first offensive play for the team, Spriggs went down - it happened that fast. While going up against Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter, Spriggs' left leg buckled, causing him to drop to the turf. The team needed to bring out the cart to get him off the field, with just seconds having passed since the start of the game.
Jason Spriggs is down. Of course.
— Zach Kruse (@zachkruse2) December 24, 2017
The Packers quickly had to compensate for his loss. They slid Justin McCray over one spot, from right guard to right tackle. Meanwhile, Lucas Patrick came in to play right guard. Patrick has just five games of experience and one start in his career, so his placement in the lineup was not ideal.
Then again, he wasn't protecting Rodgers. As for Spriggs, he was quickly ruled out for the remainder of a contest meaningless for Green Bay in every department but pride.
Jason Spriggs has a knee injury and will not return. #MINvsGB
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) December 24, 2017
Endless injuries for Green Bay
Just this week, the Packers ended the seasons of Rodgers and cornerback Demetri Goodson, who was earning occasional starts for the first time in his career.
The defense has been particularly beset by injuries. On Saturday night, Green Bay left Clay Matthews, Nick Perry, and Damarious Randall off the active roster, in addition to Jahri Evans and Davante Evans. It was probably a cautious approach, but still - that's a lot of talent being left off the field.
But the offensive line has faced plenty of challenges too.
Bryan Bulaga and Kyle Murphy both started at right tackle before Spriggs did, only to see their seasons end on injured reserve. They lost one of their most valuable offensive linemen to a rival in free agency. With Evans and Adam Pankey out, Ulrick John was left as the only remaining backup offensive lineman after Spriggs went down.
If the Packers could, they would probably forfeit their last few games for good health.