Adrian Fedkiw
Vinny Curry is currently being paid like the 10th best defensive end in football and is coming off a disastrous 2016 season after signing a massive extension last offseason.
Turns out there was a reason for his struggles.
Curry revealed during an interview with Joe Giglio and Ray Didinger on 94WIP this past weekend that he played through an MCL injury during the 2016 campaign.
“I messed my MCL up. I tried to play through it, and in the long run it ended up hurting me. It is going to be a better year, everything has been perfect so far.”
That’s pretty shocking.
Curry explained that the injury occurred in Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns. He was listed on the team’s injury report with a knee injury for the first three weeks of the season and was taken off of it after that.
Curry signed a five-year, $47.5 million extension last off-season and posted just 2 1/2 sacks and 26 tackles in 2016. The 28-year-old has shown that he can get after the quarterback, but stopping the run has always been his downfall and it’s why he hasn’t consistently stayed on the field. And it’s his run defense that still has me skeptical moving forward. If I see major improvements moving forward in this area, then 2016 will be an outlier and the injury is a very valid excuse. Until then, I still think the massive extension was a mistake.
The Eagles, of course, drafted Derek Barnett with the 14th overall pick in last month’s NFL Draft and signed Chris Long during free agency to add depth to the defensive end position. They’ll all be fighting for snaps in 2017 along with Curry.
You can listen to the entire interview below. Fast forward to the 72-minute mark for Curry.
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