Cincinnati Bengals DE Sam Hubbard played through a more serious injury than the team realized last season, it turns out. On Monday, he revealed that he had a “complete deltoid reconstruction”, via Ben Baby of ESPN. He also had a tightrope procedure done to repair the ankle. Baby writes that the injury proved “more severe than was initially believed”.
The six-year veteran missed two games in the middle of the season last year because of the ankle injury. However, he returned to play in the final seven games, roughly the same amount, but less effectively. He had four sacks in the first eight games, for example, and only two in the final seven.