Kelvin Benjamin goes down with an injury when running a route, doesn't look good. pic.twitter.com/e4VOTjEW5A
— Jeff Zell (@Jeff_Zell) August 19, 2015
On Wednesday morning, Panthers second-year wide receiver and breakout star Kelvin Benjamin went down on a non-contact play during practice while making a cut. He clutched his knee and needed to be carted off the field. Early reports claimed a possible sprain, which in the NFL is one of those vague and meaningless injury reports that just means “something is wrong, but we don’t know what yet.” Kelvin was scheduled for an MRI.
Sadly, the MRI confirmed the worst possible news for both Benjamin and the Panthers: he has a torn ACL. He announced it on his Instagram and said that he will be out for the season:
https://instagram.com/p/6lIZpmkFl8/
This is a significant blow to the Panthers — Benjamin really broke out last season with 73 catches and over 1,000 yards to help the Panthers recover from a bad start to win the division (at 7-9, but it still counts). They also won a playoff game. Expectations were high for his second year, but now Cam’s best weapon won’t be on the field and the Panthers are going to have to hope their two new draft picks (Devin Funchess and Shaq Thompson) can pick up the slack.
In the meantime, if you heard something loud in the distance, it’s just the sound of countless Fantasy Football players crying out in anger that a human being had the nerve to get injured and hurt their chance to win their league.
