Jeff Driskel broke his arm while lining up at wide receiver, per report

The Bengals are likely losing AJ McCarron this offseason to free agency, which means for the time being, the team has just one healthy quarterback on the roster.

That’s because Jeff Driskel is dealing with an arm injury right now. Driskel injured his arm in the final week of practice in the regular season, and now we know what exactly happened.

According to Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Driskel was lining up at wide receiver during practice leading up to the Week 17 finale in Baltimore. That’s when he injured his non-throwing arm, to the extent that surgery was required to fix the damage.

In practice leading up to the season finale against the Ravens, a league source told The Enquirer Driskel was asked to take reps at wide receiver.

He did, and after making a leaping one-handed catch, he fell on his left arm and broke it. The quarterback needed surgery so a rod could be inserted to stabilize the arm, but Driskel should not miss any time once voluntary workouts begin in April.

This actually isn’t the first time Driskel has lined up as a pass-catcher. He was active in one game as a rookie during the 2016 season. It came in Week 13 when he was an emergency special teams player and wide receiver.

Still, this was not great move by the Bengals to have him catching passes in Week 17. The Bengals already had Cody Core, Alex Erickson, Josh Malone, Tyler Boyd, Brandon LaFell and A.J. Green, so it’s not like they needed Driskel to play.

Regardless, it’s water under the bridge now. Let’s just hope this doesn’t affect Driskel’s career and that he’s able to return for offseason workouts. The expectation is that he will be fine for OTAs and the same is expected to be the case for all players on the Bengals’ offseason roster.