Dr. David Chao delivers the latest Puka Nacua injury news

what's up guys welcome to believe in Rams part of the believe Network Aaron krly back with you be sure to subscribe comment rate follow this podcast you can also catch us on Believe TV follow us on all the socials we've got a lot to get to in fact we have a great guest joining us to break down some drama that happened on Sunday Night Football Dr David Chow he is a former NFL team doctor for over 17 years Sports medical analyst and surgeon you get real time real facts injury info from him check out his live updates from Twitter atpr footall Doc and he is also the host of Sports Injury Central on believe what's up Dr David Chow how are you thank you for joining us oh thanks for having me the Rams played pretty well they almost stole one yeah that's exactly where I want to start actually let's get right to it because pukan Nuka uh left the Detroit game when he injured that knee uh in the first half an injury that might have happened during training camp we'll get to that in a moment but first uh you know he went to the blue medical tent he was designated initially as questionable but then he briefly returned did you know that moment he suffered a PCL sprain uh if you look at what we said at Sports Injury Central and was part of the sports injury Central pro football doc podcast I believe from August 5th early August we were saying pukaa has a PCL that's what we said it's unusual to get training camp video so sometimes it's hard but that one we had video that was publicly circulated and we always thought it was a right knee PCL Shan McVey said it was a Bersa and our clues that it was a PCL was the video of the fact that they immediately ruled them out for the entire pre-season we actually caught some flak oh you were wrong it wasn't a p was a Vera but now it's pretty clear it was a PCL all along because the play that had happened was pretty innocuous or reha happened in week one early on was very innocuous and he came back in a little bit tried out again it didn't really work out so it is our belief could he have aggravated it a little bit more absolutely so the word of this is a new injury well new on top of the old but it was always a PCL from the get-go and what we are saying is PCL injuries linger there's uh especially you know Ezekiel Elliott is a famous example who played through and had a bad season a couple years ago running back there a couple ride receivers uh Gabe Davis I think had a PCL a couple others that their injuries lingered and so this is why the quick IR for puka now with all that being said I am not one bit being critical of Shawn McVey it's coach speak okay all coaches do that right and they're doing what's best for their team and they're not trying to R injury information and that's why we do is we provide injury analysis not injury reporting injury reporting asan McVey said it was a versa injury analysis is H we think it's a PCL we think that was that way all along if anything I'm very complimentary of Shawn MC he by scheme he almost stole a game you guys came into the game with a lot of offensive line issues got more offensive line injury issues and with the quick ball out you know pass pass pass almost stole a game and I think that's Brilliance of Shawn McVey so I'm not being critical of him at all it makes sense that you guys didn't play Blake corm at all because one of the things that you need to do in the NFL that you're not always asked to do in colleges running backs have to block and Blake corm the rookie isn't really a Blocker of course you can't use Blake corm in that game you need a chipping help in the back field to get the ball out with the offensive line issues and you guys took Detroit to overtime so Kudos is Shan McBay not criticism no of course and and you saw Matthew Stafford dumped the ball off very very quickly discussing those offensive line issues in a moment um but do you think you know you tip your cap to Shawn McVey I think he's very conservative with injuries and uh you know obviously he doesn't play any of his guys during the preseason he tries to avoid situations like this it seems like it could be potentially worst case scenario losing a guy like puka who went off last year do you think that there could have been another way I mean you said it was an innocuous play what do you think that maybe he was rushed out too soon do you think they should have held on to him to longer how do you think that could have gone down it's hard I'm not trying to criticize any of the medical staff ran MC from afar all I'm saying is by video for pukaa it was always a PC now it's been four six six weeks almost since the injury happened uh so it's not like they rushed him right back and into the preseason but I'm saying the play week one against Detroit first quarter was pretty innocuous so is it preventable I'm not saying that the Rams did anything wrong I'm just saying it was always a a PCL which is why at Sports Injury Central you know we are not trying to be tout so we said look if you're looking at Futures you need to take puka nakua under because for the season because we thought this PCL would linger and that's an easy victory at this point in time so we're just doing injury analysis we're not being critical of anybody saying you the Rams did something wrong by puka we're just saying look it was always a PCL and this is what happens in cases of pcls I mean and this is what happens in football obviously this is what happens in tackle football injuries happen but you know let's go back to training camp when he sustained it I believe it was during a joint practice he sustained the Bersa or the PCL sprain but you said what you just said right now uh it's an injury that lingers so now what he's being put on IR for four weeks according to sha McVey that's what he said on Monday uh what is the future for pukah because if this is something that happened in training camp and now this is something getting reag grav week one is this the consistent how do how do we navigate puka if we're a a fantasy uh fantasy holder of him but also just the future if you're Rams fan well look the good news is he's not going to require surgery the good news is he'll be back this season when I said mid early midseason I mean he's going to miss four weeks that takes you missing weeks two three four and five and then uh I think the when the Rams have their buy I think it's kind of week six is it I don't remember off the top of my head um but there's a buy there so so I mean week seven eight returned just ahead of the middle of the season and uh I think he still can be effective when he comes back it's just these pcls Linger The Hope is that there really wasn't much of an aggravation on Monday it was more of a realization that it was still bugging him then that would give him the best chance to return now if there was a significant aggravation on Monday which I actually doubt that would have them out a lot longer than midseason but I think it's just more a realization uh that a mild re aggravation a realization that the knee wasn't right now can a PCL see I don't know anything about Dr s can a PCL uh get worse and become El te well PCL it's kind of like when you sprain your ankle it's always a little bit looser when you sprain your PCL your knee's always a little bit looser but you can overcome it with scarring in and rehab and be functional um and uh not need surgery can you make it worse I guess you can make any injury worse if the same thing happens and by the way I believe he had a bural component to the knee injury you get a Bersa when you land directly down on the knee you get a PCL when you land directly down on the knee he jump very high land directly down so I don't think Sean McVey was even lying when he said it's a Vera it probably was a Vera plus the PCL right that's part of Coach speak right no no coach wants to outright lie but they probably don't always want to tell the truth about injuries to protect their players and to protect the team right and so that's that's what happens I was involved on the other side of the coin I mean look uh remember Philip Rivers we knew he had a torn ACL and was undergoing a eope but all he was list at his knee and the head coach said MCL spring which he did have but we just left out the ACL and all the other parts of what he is injured so this is no criticism this is just uh pulling back the curtain as to what happens in the NFL such an interesting thing to think about um that you were there with with rivers and uh the coach kind of kept Under Wraps is it to protect the player or is it to protect the team as a whole in terms of competitive Advantage knowing what your team is going through injury-wise all of the above protect the player protect the team uh you know uh gamesmanship against the opponent and quite honestly coaches in the NFL they're wired that way they don't want to tell the whole story and it's not a criticism look last night we're recording this on Tuesday last night Monday Night Football surprising active of Christian mcaffrey there was all this controversy of when the backup Mason knew that he was going to start KY Shanah had said we we just found out today and the running back said I was kind of told on Friday right I mean the truth is sometime in the middle maybe they said chrish mcaffry is not likely to play but he's questionable which is legal and we made the final decision on Monday night before the game but they also told his backup get ready to be the starter right so they're not lying but they're not going to tell the public everything and that's just the way it works in the NFL and uh if your coach is not doing that and your team is not doing that you're potentially putting yourself as a disadvantage so once again no criticism but that's kind of what our role here is to do the analysis of what's actually out there as opposed to reporting Verbatim what people or coaches are saying I'm noticing there's a little bit of a delay that's okay though hopefully we can get through this um okay so then that means puka can be activated from the IR week seven when the Rams host the Raiders uh I want to get to Christian mcaffrey in a moment but really quickly a lot of guys on offense are banged up you have offensive tackle Joe Noteboom uh he was carded off to the locker room uh with an angle injury uh starting left guard St Villa an MCL sprain he could also land on IR Kevin doson the guard ankle sprain I mean this is the offensive side of the ball this is what was important to the Rams without an Aaron Donald on defense uh what can Rams Fans hold on to with a team that's decimated so early on in this season Doctor well you know your your left tackle uh you know left tackle two right because left tackle one was already out left tackle two came into the game with an ankle injury aggravated it aill of the Guard I think is going to be on go to ir and then but the shuffle you mentioned doson but the shuffle doesn't stop there because Jonah Jackson who was a guard who got moved to center now moved back to guard so you've got 60% of the offensive line for the Rams the entire left side including the center Shuffling from what your projected players were and so that's a lot of Shuffle but the Rams dealt with it in game very well right I mean they second half comeback and and almost won that game with changing the game plan on the fly to the quick ball outs at one point Matthew Stafford uh yards per pass attempt was at five it creeped up a little higher later with with a couple of longer balls yards after catch but yards per pass of five is horrifically low but that's what the game plan was ball out quick and turn the passing game into the de facto running game because they didn't trust the line up front the quick passing game and that's what the Rams did very effectively so I I don't know that All Is Lost for the Rams maybe they can continue to do that except now when they play the Cardinals that's on film now right and so the Cardinals will know that's coming after last night's performance of Jordan Mason it's it's no longer a four alarm fire right I mean they're like oh the backup's pretty good but look there's no such thing as a onewe C string all right and if you remember back last season Joe burrow the Cincinnati Bengals started 0 and2 Joe burrow had a calf injury in the preseason wasn't playing well week one or week two and there was talk of sitting him week three and I said at the time they're not going to sit him a because they can't afford to go 0 and three B one week's rest isn't going to Che it there's no you know and so why not roll them out there and play they did and they won that game and you know obviously Joe B got injured later with his wrist but my point here is the same there's if he wasn't good enough to play Monday I think it's fair to say he's not playing next Sunday either at least for Christian mcaffrey safe to say uh okay um real quick Jordan love any updates thoughts on uh on how you see that happening it wasn't a Tor C but serious yeah well from the Geto yeah when everyone's like focused on the poping the knee oh my gosh his season's over his knee pop like no we don't think so the remember the the Packers haven't said anything officially yet about Jordan love at all it's all just media reports reports of an MCL only which we would agree with it wasn't going to be an ACL end of season we still believe there's a small high ankle component which is his ankle was trapped high ankle and MCL it's very common we never made much of the knee poop we've been saying all along this is non-surgical non-season ending and quite honestly I still believe that there's a chance that Jordan love could avoid injured reserve why you know lead leg brace is commonly used by quarterbacks that's what he'll need to protect his MCL and you know Jordan love is clearly better than Malik Willis or Sean Clifford or whoever else is out there right now for the Packers and if there's a chance that he could play week five you're not going to put him on injured reserve now I think there's definitely a chance he could play week five I think internally the Packers are going to hope that he can play week four against the Vikings divisional component so I actually don't see Jordan love going on injured reserve he's just too valuable in case he can make a play week five week four and you know with the new practice squad rules and the the elevations that you can have there's more roster flexibility and uh for even a 5% chance he can play before four games you're going to hold on to Jordan love on the regular roster is my belief and maybe he can be a quick healer and play with a brace I mean it's the different story if you're Jake Ferguson with an MCL and a bone bruise and you play the position of tight end for the Cowboys position of quarterback look you want Jord you're happy if Jordan love isn't that mobile but can protect himself and play in the pocket right you're happy with that if Fe of the Packers and I think there's a chance he could do that week four or five therefore avoid injured reserve well thank you doctor I appreciate you jumping on real quick we wanted to get an update on the Rams we wanted to get an update on pukah and the state of that offense moving forward that offense is ever more important uh as they've talked about it during the offseason trying to and I'll leave with some good news we were very at sports inter Central we were very high on Cooper cup this season we thought that forget age his previous injuries we were very high in Cooper Cup this season and so far that's playing out and it's needed with P absolutely and also Jordan Whittington was the preseason darling at the wide receiver position so they are well insulated but no one like puka and of course they want to be able to get him out soon and see some uh you know that offensive line hopefully recovery uh very quickly doctor thank you very much for jumping on we'll have to get you on again soon in the meantime enjoy week two thank you again I appreciate it all right go to sic score for all the latest stuff on the Rams their opponents you can look at field views you can check out what the Cardinals look like for their health and the matchup offensively defensively Etc lots of information there I love it awesome thank you Doctor appreciate it okay thank you