Dr. David Chao talks about Puka Nacua's Training Camp Injury

Intro what's up guys welcome to believe in Rams part of the believe Network Aaron coselli back with you be sure to do all the things subscribe comment rate follow this podcast you can also catch us on Believe TV uh listen we've got a lot to get to some concerning news came out of Los Angeles wide receiver puka nkua on Sunday in a joint practice with the Chargers comes down with a knee injury uh it happened when n was trying to make a catch in a Red Zone drill he continued practicing before having discomfort in the knee which led him to leave the workout at the Chargers new facility in Elsa gundo to break it all down for us Dr David Chow X NFL head team doctor for over 17 years Sports Injury Central Podcast you can listen to it on believe uh doctor thank you so much for taking the time how are you doing today I'm doing great thanks for having me and yes I formerly worked for the Chargers in San dieg San Diego but I was not at that practice for when AA was injured so anything that I'm saying is based on what we do at Sports Injury Central it's injury analysis not injury reporting and it's not Insider knowledge about injuries in the game not Insider information fair enough fair enough uh Pukas injury well if you can help us understand uh it according to Shan McVey he had a Bersa sack and that kind of burst now makes him weak to week they did say uh reports coming out he will be able and available to play in the season opener against Detroit September 8th uh but what what did you see from the the videos what did you see happen and can you tell us more to ease or should Rams Fans be concerned well you know certainly what coach Shawn MC is saying helps ease the concern but I don't know that it removes it completely yes by video and it's very limited reporter cell phone video it's not NFL 18 angles in game video which would be much more helpful but the way he landed on the right knee is indeed consistent with inflaming the burus saac maybe not rupturing it a little different phenomenon but it's also consistent with a poster cruciate ligament sprain that's what puka needs to avoid there have been several instances of that in the past uh the Lions wide receiver and Bucks wide receiver that lingered uh at the end of last season where they missed playoff games and you know famously Ezekiel Elliott 2021 injured his knee PCL week four played the whole rest of the season but certainly wasn't himself and you know some would say that was sort of the start of the decline of Ezekiel Elliott I'm not saying that will be the case for puka I'm saying that's the hurdle look I don't doubt that he has some bural swelling Shan mcve is usually fairly honest about what he says but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a PCL mild sprain in addition it's not surgical I I too am hopeful that puka will be ready week one the question is is he going to be ready what we say as a six score in the 90s essentially 100% healthy or is he going to be a little bit limited as he works his way back well and you mentioned Ezekiel Elliott with puka being a wide receiver and the mobility of his knee uh how how serious is this kind of injury for a player that plays that kind of position at that high level well certainly it's it's running back and wide receiver is a little bit different in the Motions but I'm blanking right now the moment the the Bucks wide receiver the Lions wide receiver that tore his PCL and missed the whole rest of the playoffs last year but that is something where you can miss some time you don't need surgery but does it affect your uh cutting ability and stopping ability route running ability it could let's just hope it's just baa and they can Comal it down and it's Burless swelling and it's better to get rid of it look everybody's cautious in the preseason especially with your star players you know up the coast CMC is getting shut down in San Francisco a division rival with a cast string just like Joe burrow got shut down with his CF string with the Bengals last year even though in the regular season CMC played through after a week or two off he's shut down for the preseason so let's hope this is what the case is week to week had me a little concerned related to Bersa saac because burus saacs typically are more dayt day but then again maybe this is just caution in the pre-season so I'm not an alarmist I'm just trying to give all sides of well when you say calm it down and and then you add the week to week what is the treatment for something like this and do you think realistically season opener puka would be one 100% well I think puka has a reasonable shot even with the mild PCL of playing week one the question is until we see him running routes and doing things in practice uh I don't know that we can say or guarantee that he will be 100% that's the question mark at this point in time I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with puka the next few days uh how he's seen on the sideline what sort of wrap Andor brace he has on his leg that'll give us some more context clues right now it's not a five alarm fire but you know you know you do want to send the fire trucks just to check and make sure there's nothing else going on beyond the burus act that has been well Rams injuries I mean this is just like sha mcvey's worst nightmare and the reason being is because this these types of injuries and granted it sounds like it's not as serious but this is why he he tempers his players especially his star players during the preseason he doesn't want to see injuries during the preseason and honestly you know the Rams have had some injuries during the preseason uh puka of course you have Jonah Jackson uh some guys uh in the secondary and you know the thing that's I'm sure I imagine frustrating and not sure if you're following the Rams uh day-to-day week to week but they're looking to rebuild their defense and with that they want they're they're wide out up against uh a new look defense like the Rams are trying uh to put out without having Aaron Donald on the field um yeah yeah no no no question look uh in terms no Aaron Donald is Big um and there are some secondary issues for the Rams there's some o line issues as you've mentioned and you're right Shan McVey doesn't play his guys in the preseason in games and he wants to save it all Matthew Stafford's coming off his neck issue that he was fine with last year but the end of the season the year before look deliver some good news pretty optimistic about Cooper cup uh at wide receiver he's had some injury issues and looking at his injuries and Recovery pretty optimistic there so I don't want to be all doom and gloom there is some good news yeah no of course uh let's move on um to other guys on the team one of which uh Matthew Stafford Matthew Stafford 36 years old and you mentioned the injury in 2022 he looked mighty good uh last year and during training camp when I was there uh he he was in rare form he looked great um how how do and and how do you DR why do you feel certain quarterbacks stay healthy this long like a like a Matthew Stafford well one can argue Matthew Stafford hasn't stayed healthy he's gotten his share of injuries he has just been tough guy for the most part playing through and some of his you know being carried to the line of scrimmage with the Detroit Lions and throwing passes and staying in games has been legendary so hats off to him but not this past season but the previous season it ended due to a neck issue because you can't mess around around with the spinal cord and that is one of those one hit away from flaring up again issues so there's part of my concern about the offensive line the other area of concern we talked about secondary you know you guys signed travius white which is a superb NFL player but last year he was coming off in ACL and this year he's coming off in Achilles te two of the dreaded A's look we would have expected a better year this year from his ACL standpoint but where is at with his Achilles is he going to play I think he's going to but you know to react and be the shutdown Corner that he has been throughout his career might be a tall order at this point in time at least for the start of the season so there are some points of real concern for the Rams we have a preseason injury preview where we look at all 32 teams all positions and right now this is not the end of the world the Rams are in the lower cortile of Health going into the season that certainly can change and you can go to sore.com sports Central and give your email and they'll send you that free report yeah I mean a lot of people curious cuz fantasy football is you know building their rosters and I think uh a big question mark is uh how is puka going to last this season if you're into fantasy football um so that's a great that's a great thing to probably check out for all you Fantasy Football uh Fanatics before uh you get to your drafts another question too uh is Braden Fisk so he's another he's he's another one with an injury obviously the new rookie he has a blister doctor the size of his foot now when I think of a blister I think it's annoying but a blister the size of his foot I don't know if you've seen his foot doctor he's got a very big foot well you know certainly uh that's something that he's going to miss some time and the bigger concern might be for a young guy getting reps and getting used to the new system and the work in training camp but I don't see it as a longterm con concern this is nowhere near remember a couple years ago on Hard Knock Antonio Brown with the Raiders and the blistered feet and all that stuff right this is not that this is gonna be okay but it does cost him some practice reps in in time and it's especially important for a rookie you know puka is still a young guy less important for him he's been through an entire NFL cycle and performed very very well in the same offense etc for this rookie that's sort of the concern get uh and then lastly I Aaron Rodgers injury want to spend a little bit of time on Aaron Rogers who also sustained the dreaded a the Achilles uh you know there's a lot of talk about Matthew Stafford compared to the accolades of a one Aaron Aaron roders you know I've said a couple of times it looks like they're trending in different directions just by circumstance obviously this injury uh what do the tea leaves say with regards to how you see first of all Aaron roders looking and recovering now right because he didn't go to Jets camp right away and then you know he's getting a little chippy with his his some of his teammates uh can you sort of break down what's going on with Aaron Rodgers certainly physically but also what are you seeing from him mentally well you know I'm not sure what the whole deal was about going to Egypt and missing the mandatory mini camp not sure what that was all about I don't know if it was handled PR correctly or what have you there seems to be other ways to handle it but from his health perspective I really have no worries so why would I have no worries about Aaron Rogers Achilles but be worried about travius white Achilles because Aaron Rogers is a quarterback he throws for a living from his arms he does scramble move in the pocket some but he in this healthiest of days could not play cornerback the rigers of cornerback are so much different and higher and high demand and look if you're only 80% at cornerback you're smoked if you're 80% on at quarterback you're still fine in terms of your Achilles I think he's higher than that look the day he got hurt week one Monday Night Football ingame when we do in-game injury analysis at pro football doc we said that's an KES rupture and obviously the next day when the news on you saw it when you saw it you called it on the spot you knew okay oh yeah that's one of the things that we do look I studied film for 17 years in the NFL I looked at players on the field on the sideline in the locker room the next day after an MRI I knew the answer to the question but I usually had half an hour to kill before meeting with the GM I'd go to the video room they'd show me the video now I'm not in the NFL anymore I look at vilm then I knew the answer to the question and looked at the question the video now I look at the video and go okay it was very clear that he tore his Achilles I don't care that he stood up and then went back down that was the call but the next day afterwards I was on with Pat macafee obviously Aaron Rogers is tight with him and the number one question there on ESPN and Pat McAfee was is this the end of his career and I said absolutely not a because I get he's quote older uh but it's a he's a quarterback it's his strong arm it's his front foot I said 100% I guarantee he will play next season there's no way with all his competitive fire he's going out like that and the Achilles isn't going to prevent him from doing so and I even said at that point in time as a matter of fact it's not impossible if the Jets make the playoffs for Aaron Rogers to return last season and we heard all the hubhub that he might come back in December and people didn't believe it but we said that day one so that's the thing that we do differently we do injury analysis on the front end and looking at it from an NFL Physician's perspective uh not just reporting what athletes or coaches are saying so our opinions and keep in mind their opinions uh sometimes are a little bit different yeah no and I'm gonna plug what your show is because I think that's brilliant to be able to sort of in-game diagnose know exactly what you're getting because and and and and in season we do a Monday Morning podcast on the believe Network and be it for Fantasy or for your team we will do a rundown of the injuries from Sunday and what it looks like going forward for next week and that's where it's been fairly popular to go through that not only from a fan standpoint for let's say Rams injuries but obviously from a fantasy Andor of course uh that's that's that's a big one fortunately or unfortunately people care about their fantasy teams and they want to know uh if their player's GNA perform and with a Wier uh it's you know with a puka situation or with any type of player that's like a wide receiver they're almost like a stallion you have to be so careful with them uh I'm Gonna Let You Go well Erin go ahead no perfect I was just saying thank you for the time and come back on any please let us know again how can we find your show what what is it called and where can we find it doctor the Pro Football doc Sports Injury Central Podcast is on the believe Network the website is Sports Injury Central siic score.com and we do at sic or six score for every team every offense every defense every run offense or every pass offense every individual player especially fantasy relevant player so it's a lot of information for people for whatever your purposes fandom gambling fantasy football I love it I thank you for the pretty good news looks like puka will be okay and even on the Aaron Rogers front love to hear that he uh that he looks to be okay as a quarterback heading into the season uh David Dr David Chow thank you again we shall see you soon okay