JuJu Smith-Schuster Exits Game vs. Jaguars With Apparent Injury

The Chiefs' No. 1 wideout took a hard hit in the second quarter and left the game early.

The Kansas City Chiefs got out to a 14-0 lead and were nearing midfield against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, but a critical third-down play ended with an unfortunate injury. At the end of a pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes, wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster took a massive hit from Jacksonville safety Andre Cisco and remained down on the field heading into a commercial break:

an absolutely monster hit on JuJu Smith-Schuster and he's still down. hope he's OK pic.twitter.com/IsahIGfzJH

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) November 13, 2022

After staying down on the field for several moments and being surrounded by many of his teammates, Smith-Schuster eventually got up and left the game. Per the in-game broadcast commentary from Jim Nantz, the 25-year-old needed a good deal of help in order to get down the steps into the tunnel before the camera cut to him being escorted into the Chiefs' locker room. 

Initially, referees threw a flag that would've led to an unnecessary roughness call on Cisco for an illegal hit on a defenseless receiver. After some deliberation among the group, however, it was announced that the flag would be picked up. Much to the dismay of the home crowd at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City was forced to punt due to the pass falling incomplete and penalty being called off. 

Just a few minutes later, Cisco delivered another huge hit when he collided with Chiefs receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling and another flag was thrown. That time, the penalty was defensive holding but was once again called off by the officials. Valdes-Scantling briefly exited the game but was then cleared to return.

The Chiefs originally announced that Smith-Schuster was in the NFL's concussion protocol, as well as sharing that offensive tackle Andrew Wylie was questionable to return with an elbow injury. They joined defensive back Chris Lammons (also in concussion protocol) as those who got injured in the first half of Sunday's game. Right before the end of the half, Kansas City downgraded Smith-Schuster and Lammons to out. At the beginning of the second half, Wylie was also downgraded to out.

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