Jacksonville Jaguars 7th round pick Jonathan Woodard to miss 2016 season with torn Achilles
By Daniel Lago
The Jacksonville Jaguars seem to attract to the injury bug this time of year, as 7th round pick Jonathan Woodard tore his Achilles and is out for the year.
With the team expecting to hear good news about first round pick Jalen Ramsey during a second opinion on Monday, the Jacksonville Jaguars released some injury news about another player. 7th round pick Jonathan Woodard tore his Achilles and will miss the 2016 season.
Jaguars' 7th-round pick Jonathan Woodard has undergone Achilles surgery. He will open season on Jaguars' PUP list and be out indefinitely.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 23, 2016
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Generally 7th round picks don’t make an impact ever let alone in their rookie seasons, but Woodard is an intriguing guy who could have inserted himself into the LEO rotation if he flashed in the offseason activities. A relative unknown out of Central Arkansas, Woodard was extremely productive in college, amassing 30.5 sacks during his career. Woodard was the third edge rusher the Jaguars drafted, behind 3rd round pick Yannick Ngakoue and 6th round pick Tyrone Holmes. With Dante Fowler Jr. coming back from a torn ACL and
Ryan Davisalready in the lineup, the edge rushing rotation was started to get a little crowded.
Overall, this news isn’t all bad and not just because Woodard is a 7th round pick who probably wasn’t going to make an impact in 2016. With an all of a sudden log-jammed defensive line room, there was a decent chance Woodard was not going to make the roster, meaning he would have been relegated to the practice squad. Woodard would have been free to sign with another team to be on their active roster at that point. At that point it becomes a bit of a sticky situation, as you want Woodard to flash and show potential, but not excel enough to make another team want to sign him and snatch him away.
It remains to be seen if Woodard will ever become a mainstay in Jacksonville, but it looks like he’ll at least get a chance in 2017. He already has a pretty good attitude about this setback:
"I Hit a set back but Im motivated to come back better than ever ✊"