Cedric Peerman injury “just a break”; will require surgery

Bengals running back Cedric Peerman injured his arm on Sunday night and though it looked pretty bad, it now appears to be "just a break”, that will unfortunately need surgery.

As someone the Bengals have heavily relied on as a special team captain, it will be hard to replace what he brings to the field. But, it could have been worse.

"I think they were concerned that there may have been more injury to that area than just his arm. I think there was concern there was some injury to his elbow," Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons told ESPN’s Katherine Terrell. "There was none of that. It was just a break, a fracture. But I think he'll have to have it fixed. I don't think it's something as easy as it's just going to heal on its own. He has to have it surgically addressed."

Per Terrell, the surgery will take place during the next two weeks.

Here’s the play during which Peerman was injured:

And here’s a close up:

Peerman remains on the Bengals’ roster after today’s roster cuts down to the 75 man limit. It seems the team will likely keep him on the 53-man roster come Saturday, before moving him to the Injured Reserve list to allow for his possible return via the Designation to Return after Week 8 of the regular-season. If he is placed on IR and the team opts to use their one Designation to Return on him down the road, that would mean rookie William Jackson III would not return to the field this year. In past years, teams needed to choose their one player to use the Designation to Return on prior to the start of the season; after an offseason rule change, teams can make the call once they’re ready to do so.

"Playing these preseason games, that's the part that sucks. It can happen at anytime, I get that, but you just hate for one of your good players to get hurt like that,” Simmons said. "It's also an opportunity for some of these other guys to step up. We can't do it with one guy. It's got to be multiple guys."

The Bengals will certainly experiment with players to take on Peerman’s role on special teams in Thursday’s preseason matchup against the Colts.