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Su’a Cravens out 2-3 weeks after suffering knee injury in preseason game

By Jacob Camenker

LANDOVER, MD - OCTOBER 2: Running back George Atkinson #25 of the Cleveland Browns is tackled by defensive back Su'a Cravens #36 of the Washington Redskins in the second quarter at FedExField on October 2, 2016 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
LANDOVER, MD - OCTOBER 2: Running back George Atkinson #25 of the Cleveland Browns is tackled by defensive back Su'a Cravens #36 of the Washington Redskins in the second quarter at FedExField on October 2, 2016 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
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The Redskins already lost Trent Murphy for the year due to a bad knee injury. Su’a Cravens also is set to miss time after suffering a knee injury of his own.

The bad news keeps coming in for the Washington Redskins on Friday afternoon. After suffering a 23-3 defeat against the Baltimore Ravens, the team has lost a couple of players to injuries. The worse of the two injuries came when Trent Murphy went down with a knee injury. He tore his ACL and MCL and as a result, he will miss the season. However, Su’a Cravens was also injured in the contest. Thankfully, his injury is less severe.

Cravens has reportedly just “tweaked” his knee, per ESPN’s John Keim. The time frame for his return will be about two to three weeks. Per Keim, the injury was a re-aggravation of an injury that he had suffered during his college days at USC.

While the injury does not appear to be too severe, it could have a negative impact on the Redskins. Cravens is playing safety for the first time during his NFL career, and he needs to get all the reps he can at the position before the season starts. The team would rather have growing pains occur in the preseason as opposed to the first month of the year.

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Also, Cravens is part of the starting safety tandem, and while it is only his first year at the position, he has a longer tenure with the team than D.J. Swearinger. Cravens is in his second season with the Redskins. Swearinger was signed over from the Cardinals in free agency. While Swearinger has talent, he needs to get reps with Cravens, as they are likely to play together for a majority of the defensive snaps in 2017. Continuity is key in the NFL, so getting them work together was important for the team this preseason.

At the same time, these concerns are only minor. Cravens will be healthy by the start of the regular season, and the Redskins have some veteran depth a safety, led by Will Blackmon. If Cravens is slow to recover, Blackmon can begin the year as the starter and he should do fairly well in that role.

Next: What went wrong in Redskins loss to Ravens

It’s not ideal for Cravens to miss time, but the Redskins do have options. They have depth at the position and young talent. The team needs to make sure that they don’t rush him back, as they can manage without him. But they still need to make sure he is ready to play the position when called upon in the regular season.

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