‘Breaks my heart’: Bucs’ Jensen to IR, out for ’23

TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are placing Pro Bowl center Ryan Jensen on season-ending injured reserve because of the knee injury he suffered in training camp last year, the team announced Saturday night.

“We’re gonna be putting him on IR. He’s gonna be done for the year,” Bucs general manager Jason Licht said on the WFLA television broadcast of the team’s preseason finale against the Baltimore Ravens. “The selflessness, the toughness, the leadership he has — we talked a couple weeks ago about this. It was an emotional moment for me, for [coach] Todd [Bowles] when we met with him, I know for everybody involved. But it’s for the best for him.”

Head coach Todd Bowles said Jensen’s knee “wasn’t responding” despite attempts to get him ready for the season.

“The more he did on it, the worse it got,” Bowles said. “You’re healed when you don’t do anything. You’re not once you start working on it and it’s not responding.”

The Bucs’ starting center since 2018, Jensen did participate in some training camp practices on a limited basis this year, practicing one day and one day off, but he did not play in any preseason games, leading to speculation that he would not be available to start the season.

Jensen said he did not suffer a setback, but that his recovery hasn’t progressed at the necessary rate to play this season.

“It breaks my heart,” Jensen said. “There’s nothing more that I wanna do than be a part of this team. This organization has changed my life. Unfortunately my knee wasn’t progressing in an upward, positive way. I fought my butt off. I put more work in this offseason than probably my entire career. It just wasn’t responding how it needed to respond for me to go out there and play at a high level.

“It sucks. But I know I want to be around this team and help out the young guys and mentor the guys on the line, and do whatever I can do to be a part of this team and help this team win football games.”

Jensen tore his ACL, MCL, PCL and meniscus and fractured his tibial head and cartilage. He missed all of the 2022 regular season but did not undergo surgery and was able to suit up for the Bucs’ wild-card game against the Dallas Cowboys.

The concern with surgery at that time was was that there would be scarring and a loss of range of motion. Instead, he focused on regaining the range of motion and physical therapy. Jensen sought opinions from five orthopedic surgeons before making that decision.

Jensen said last month of that game, “Looking back, probably shouldn’t have played.” But that comment was more a reflection of Jensen feeling like he didn’t play very well. The Bucs lost to the Cowboys 31-14 and then-quarterback Tom Brady was sacked twice. Jensen emphasized that he did not incur any more damage to the knee by playing.

“We did a bunch of imaging before and after that game, and there was nothing glaring,” Jensen said. “Obviously a little bit of swelling in the MRI postgame, but there was nothing that happened in that game that would have set me back.”

Jensen said he doesn’t regret going the non-surgical route last season and doesn’t believe surgery would help now and “would probably make it worse.”

“But I’m gonna fight and do whatever I’ve gotta do to get this knee healthy,” he said.

He added: “Right now it’s just time and doing what we need to do to get it feeling better.”

Jensen said the main issue is the deterioration of the lateral compartment ligament and cartilage damage while all the other ligaments are healthy and intact.

Though a decision was made weeks ago to shut him down for the season, it wasn’t public knowledge until Saturday night.

“We’ve known for a couple of weeks, and it was kind of hard keeping it a secret,” left tackle Tristan Wirfs said. “We’re gonna support him 100 percent, as much as we can. It’s tough. We all know how much this game means to him. A lot of guys don’t get to leave the game how they want to — it’s usually taken from them. We’ve just gotta rally around him and support him, but we know he’s gonna be around helping us. It sucks, but it is what it is.”

He will be replaced by second-year center Robert Hainsey, who started in his place all during the regular season last year.

When asked if there was concern he has possibly played his last down of football, Jensen said, “I’m gonna fight my butt off and try to do whatever I can to play football again and give it my best shot.”