Injury update on Wisconsin football QB Billy Edwards Jr.
New information has become available on the injury status of Wisconsin QB Billy Edwards Jr.
For the third year in a row, Luke Fickell and the coaching staff went to the portal to bring in a veteran quarterback to man the offense for the Wisconsin football team. And for the third-straight season, that quarterback will likely miss some time with an injury, forcing the Badgers to turn to their backup for some meaningful snaps.
Billy Edwards Jr. went down with what appeared to be a non-contact knee injury in the second quarter of the Badgers’ 17-0 victory over Miami (OH) on Thursday night.
When you hear the phrase, ‘non-contact knee injury,’ it’s easy to assume the worst and expect a season-ending injury.
Edwards Jr. was able to walk off the field under his own power and then eventually jog to the locker room. He was quickly ruled out for the remainder of the game at the start of the third quarter, but showed up on the sideline in street clothes in the third quarter without crutches and seemed to be relatively mobile.
After the game, Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell started his post-game press conference by telling the media he didn’t have an update on his starting quarterback.
"Don’t know a whole lot,” Fickell said. “Good to see, though, that he was back out there, able to be a part of the game and be with our team. Hopefully that’s a really good sign for things moving forward."
If Edwards Jr. truly did suffer a big knee injury, they probably would have had some more information than they did, similar to when Tyler Van Dyke tore his ACL last season.
Today, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the MRI for the Badgers’ quarterback came back clean and suffered a knee sprain.
Sources: Wisconsin QB Billy Edwards had a clean MRI today and his status is week-to-week, which eliminated the worst fears after leaving the opener with a non-contact injury. He sprained his knee against Miami University, and a precise timetable for return isn’t known.
So the good news is the Badgers’ preferred quarterback will be back this season, barring a setback. But with Alabama and Michigan looming in the next few weeks, the Badgers may need to rely on Danny O’Neil as they head into two hostile environments where the Badgers are already considered heavy underdogs.
The other good news is we have Danny O’Neil as the backup and not Braedyn Locke for the third year in a row. O’Neil showed his playmaking ability last night with his legs. With more than a full week of preparation, I’m confident we will see a better version of him against Middle Tennessee than we did on Thursday night.
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