The bad news: The injury bug already has bitten the New England Patriots. The good news: It didn’t bite too hard.
Patriots defensive lineman Dominique Easley left with an apparent hip injury in the first quarter of Thursday night’s season-opening win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and initially, things didn’t look good.
Yet Easley has a hip pointer and may miss just a week or two, a source told NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport on Friday.
Easley suffered the injury less than five minutes into the first quarter Thursday night when he went down awkwardly while engaging with a Steelers offensive lineman.
It appears the injury wasn’t too severe, but it nonetheless was disappointing for the second-year defensive lineman, who has had issues staying healthy in the past. New England took Easley with the 29th overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft after he tore both his ACLs at the University of Florida. He played in the Patriots’ first 11 games in 2014 but was placed on injured reserve on Dec. 17 with another knee injury.
Thumbnail photo via Bruce Hammelgarn/USA TODAY Sports Images
