Jonah Williams calls shoulder injury “pretty terrible luck”

[Who Dey]

Jonah Williams remembers the moment he injured his shoulder. The Bengals offensive tackle kept playing with it until he couldn’t.

An MRI revealed the bad news June 25: A torn laburm in his left shoulder. The first-round draft pick is expected to miss his rookie season while rehabbing.

“There was a distinct moment when it happened,” Williams told Jay Morrison of TheAthletic.com. “I forget which day it was specifically, but there was this one play where I was like, ‘Ah, that wasn’t good.’ It didn’t feel good, but I kept playing. I played with it for about a week or two of OTAs. But I kept having repeat incidents, so I went and talked to the medical staff and got an MRI, and they told me right away what it was.”

Williams started all 44 games during his career at Alabama. He likely won’t start a game for the Bengals until 2020.

“I never thought it would be that bad,” Williams said. “I didn’t think it was painful enough to warrant six months [of recovery]. But there’s just this lack of stability in that region, and it’s really important for a left tackle to have a stable left shoulder. So I get it. It’s really just terrible luck. I never missed a start in college. For me to get hurt in OTAs is pretty terrible luck.”