Washington Football Team places Bryce Love on IR with knee issue

Bryce Love’s return to the field for the Washington Football Team will have to wait.

Coming into the 2020 season, there was some excitement from fans of the Washington Football Team about Bryce Love. The 2019 fourth-round pick had some nice moments during training camp and was generating buzz, so much so that some thought that he may play a role in the backfield early in the season.

However, the Washington coaching staff wanted to get Love more time to round back into the Heisman runner-up that he was during the 2017 college season at Stanford. They had seen some flashes, but he wasn’t quite there yet in his return from a late-2018 torn ACL, as has been communicated several times by ESPN’s John Keim.

Unfortunately, it appears that Love has suffered a setback in his attempt to return to form. According to NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay, Love has been placed on IR with a swollen knee.

And to replace Love on the active roster, the team called up linebacker Jarred Norris from their practice squad.

This is obviously bad news for Love, as he simply hasn’t been able to get healthy again and regain that explosiveness that made him dangerous in college. Perhaps a few weeks off will do him some good, but it’s also fair to wonder if he will ever round into form at the NFL level.

With Love out, Washington will have three running backs on their roster in Antonio Gibson, J.D. McKissic, and Peyton Barber. The three of them have soaked up all the snaps to kickstart the season and should continue to be the top options for Washington barring an injury.

As for any potential replacement for Love on the roster, the team doesn’t have a running back on the practice squad, so they’d have to add a free agent if they wanted extra depth at the position. It could behoove them to do that, and they’d probably target a young player with upside if they wanted depth. Perhaps a guy like Wes Hills, who had two TDs on 10 carries for the Lions last year, would make sense as an addition to the practice squad.

Hopefully, Love won’t be out for long, but Washington fans will have to continue to wait to see him log his first carry for the Washington Football Team.