Saquon Barkley and Courtland Sutton both suffered ACL injuries last season. Widespread concern has overtaken the fantasy community due to the severity of the injuries and the potential both players have to be ready for week 1.
As a Certified and Licensed Athletic Trainer, I will provide a breakdown of ACL injuries and what we can expect from Barkley and Sutton in 2021.
ACL Injury Overview
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) primarily prevents anterior translation of the tibia on the femur. This is a fancy way of saying that the shin is prevented from moving forward by the ACL. These forces occur on the lower leg with lateral cutting, stopping/going, and landing (eccentric forces) from jumping.
Barkley and Sutton both tore their ACLs in Week 2 of the 2020 season. Although they play different positions, the demands put on their bodies are similar – cutting, jumping, stopping, and going. Although no rehab is exactly the same, you can assume they share similar rehab time frames in their return to play protocols.
ACL Injury Rehab
The Rehabilitation Protocol for ACL Reconstruction provides guidance and timeframes to clinicians and patients. The protocol provided above outlines general assumptions of what the athlete should be doing around the stage of healing that they are in. There are different school of thoughts as to if protocols should be followed exactly or if they are more guidance in nature, but regardless what school of thought you take you can assume Barkley and Sutton share similar timelines outside of any setbacks.
Most ACL protocols have athletes doing lateral jumps and cuts with boxes and/or cones paired with eccentric quad work (eccentric or controlled loading of a muscle puts the most stress on muscles) anywhere between the 3-5 month mark. Both Barkley and Sutton are around the 7 month mark currently so we can safely assume they have been doing dynamic movements such as cutting, running, and jumping at this point in the rehab stages respectfully.
2021 Outlook
Since both Sutton and Barkley had their injuries occur on September 20, 2020 and the 2021 season starts on September 9th, they will both be around the 10-11 month mark post-operative. Surgery to fix intracapsular ligaments like the ACL can be delayed a few weeks following injuries due to the amount of swelling following the rupture of these ligaments. Since the ACL resides inside the capsule in the knee, the swelling is isolated and not allowed to dissipate typically resulting in a very swollen knee. Due to the swelling, surgery is not a possibility until the swelling reduces, and this is why Saquon was delayed in surgery for an entire month.
The question that is on everyone’s mind is “will they be fully ready to go Week 1?”
Return to sport typically occurs anywhere between 6-12 months. On the lower end of the spectrum (6 months), we have seen superhuman Adrian Peterson return to play and lead the league in rushing (in now way am I saying Barkley and Sutton break the rushing/receiving records this season). However, 9-12 months is more common for return to sport, but there is no exact science for return to sport as studies have shown.
With no reported setbacks in their rehab processes to date for both Barkley and Sutton, combined with the fact that they will be nearly a full year removed from their injuries and rehab process, I fully expect them to be on the field for their respective teams on Week 1.
Saquon Barkley is projected as the —– and Courtland Sutton projects as the —— this season according to our 2021 projections.
