Ron Rivera offers positive update on Kamren Curl after Week 18 injury scare

It wasn’t pretty, but the Washington Football Team wound up convincingly disposing of the New York Giants in Sunday’s season finale.

In the days leading up to the game, Ron Rivera made his intentions very clear: Washington was going to play to win. While some tanking apologists opposed the idea, the majority of fans were on board, and rightly so.

After all, for every step forward Washington seemed to take this year, much of those would’ve been erased had they lost to Joe Judge’s now-former group, who likes to run victory-formation QB sneaks on third and long.

Sorry, we couldn’t resit.

All in all, Sunday was a big win for Washington.

They only dropped a few spots in the 2022 draft order (they own the 11th pick), but they got through the game without any injuries that would’ve tarnished Rivera’s decision to play his starters as much as he did.

For a while, though, fans were traumatized after Kamren Curl was carted to the locker room with a knee injury in the second half.

The Washington Football Team avoided disaster with Kam Curl.

The last thing Washington needed was their up-and-coming safety to suffer a major knee injury in a meaningless game.

After watching countless starters, including Chase Young, Montez Sweat, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Curtis Samuel, Logan Thomas, Jon Bostic, William Jackson, Landon Collins and JD McKissic miss time through injury, it appears the football goods were on Washington’s side in regard to Curl’s injury scare.

Per Ron Rivera, the 22-year-old’s X-ray came back clean.

"“He took a shot to the knee, but it was more of just the contact and maybe a little bit of a hyperextension,” Rivera told reporters after the game. “The X-ray was fine. We’re just optimistic it was really just more of a bruise, hopefully, and a little bit of a strain, if anything.”"

Even better? Rivera updated these comments on Monday saying Curl merely hyperextended his knee. While that must’ve been incredibly painful, the fact the Arkansas product didn’t suffer any structural damage is a huge relief.

Even Curl himself downplayed the injury.

And thus, an entire fan base rejoices.

While Washington wound up winning the game, Curls’ injury, if serious, would’ve stolen all the headlines, and understandably so.

Finishing up his second year in the NFL as a seventh-round pick, Curl has already established himself as a top-five most important player on the defense.

For the season, Curl finished second on the team in tackles (99) and fifth in both pass breakups (five) and run stops (27). He allowed just 9.1 yards per reception, which is an elite number for a safety and his 87.6 passer rating allowed was superior to every other member of the secondary not named Bobby McCain.

Widely regarded as the best pure tackler on the roster, his 82.4 tackling grade was first on the team among players who logged at least 300 snaps.

In sum, Curl is one of the best young safeties in the league, though he isn’t regarded as such outside of Washington, and the franchise was extremely fortunate he walked away from Sunday’s scare without a serious injury.