General Manager Mike Maccagnan announced on Saturday that their 2015 second round pick, WR Devin Smith, will miss all of the 2017 NFL season after retearing the ACL in his right knee.  Smith’s play was limited last year after he returned from ACL surgery in his rookie year and to date he has only played 14 games with the Jets.

 “We believe it happened prior to the first set of OTAs,” Maccagnan said. “He had been around. He’d been working and training. But at the first OTA he experienced a situation with his knee. We brought him in, we examined him. We had examined him actually before he went out [for the workout]. And then of course, when we got the MRI it showed the torn ACL. … Devin, unfortunately, won’t be able to play this season.”

An ACL injury is scary for any athlete, no matter what the sport and many wonder if they will be able to return after surgery.  In fact, a study published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine showed that 63% of NFL athletes returned to the NFL following surgery to repair a ruptured ACL.  The average time these athletes needed to get back on the field was 10.8 months and their position did not seem to play a factor but, more veteran players were able to return to the league than younger players.  In this study veterans with more than 4 years of experience had a significantly greater chance to return to playing than younger players.  So while this data does not bode well for Devon Smith in this study players picked higher in the draft had a much better chance of returning to play than lower round players. 

For professional or non-professional athletes, picking the right orthopedic surgeon for an ACL reconstruction is imperative as not all surgeons have the same approach.  Dr. Charles Ruotolo and Dr Richard McCormack at Total Orthopedics and Sports Medicine perform a newer all inside hamstring anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.  This provides for a larger graft with less pain during the recovery phase than conventional anterior cruciate ligament surgery without risking the higher retear rates seen with donated (cadaver) grafts.

The physicians at Total Orthopedics and Sports Medicine focus on both the surgical and non-surgical treatment of bone and joint injuries, including ACL tears.  Renowned experts Dr. Charles Ruotolo, Dr. Richard McCormack, Dr. Brett Spain and Dr. Paul Pipitone lead our Knee Team.  If surgery is necessary, the practice uses a multidisciplinary approach to create a treatment plan that focuses on the patient’s lifestyle and activities and helps them get back to those activities quickly and effectively. Total Orthopedics and Sports Medicine has locations throughout Long Island.  When in the right hands, a full recovery is entirely possible.