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Reggie Wayne on Sunday had the worst game I've ever seen him play. He dropped three or four passes and saw his streak of consecutive games with at least three catches come to an end at 82, catching just one pass for five yards on eight targets. It's a sad sight to see the star and Colts' legend struggling, but perhaps he's dealing with a serious injury.
We knew that he suffered an elbow injury earlier in the season against the Bengals and it caused him to miss a game, but is he playing through an even more serious injury? Head coach Chuck Pagano might have let it slip today in his post-game interview that indeed he is. On his post-game radio interview with the Voice of the Colts Bob Lamey, Pagano mentioned that Reggie has been fighting through a "knee, elbow, torn tri-" before then stopping himself and resuming. What was that, Chuck? Was that a reference to a torn triceps? It would seem to be.
If in fact Reggie Wayne is battling through a torn triceps, it would help explain a lot of things - namely, Reggie's recent struggles. Normally a season-ending injury, if Wayne is playing through it the drops and ineffectiveness becomes more understandable. We knew that the 36-year old receiver coming off of a torn ACL has lost a step, but what was surprising today were his hands - dropping several passes. It did appear that he was trying to catch the football more with his body and not his hands, which raised some questions about whether or not his elbow was healthy (which I think he's still struggling with but battling through). Add in a potential serious injury in a torn triceps and it makes even more sense.
Now, again, we don't know this for sure. All we're going off of is Chuck Pagano's post-game radio interview in which he said "torn tri-" in a list of injuries Reggie Wayne is battling through before stopping himself. Does that mean that Reggie - who today tied Peyton Manning's franchise records for most games played (208) and most wins a part of (141) - is battling through a torn triceps? We don't know, but it seems like it could be the case. And if so, it helps to explain the struggles that led to his worst game as a Colt on Sunday against the Browns.
[UPDATE:] Head coach Chuck Pagano confirmed in his Monday press conference that Wayne has been playing through a torn triceps. He said the injury is connected to the elbow injury he suffered against the Bengals earlier in the year.