Jets defensive end Carl Lawson was carted off of the practice field on Thursday morning with a leg injury. There’s no official word on Lawson’s condition yet, but it’s believed to be an Achilles issue (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo). 
Lawson felt a pop when he suffered the injury (Twitter link), a sign that he could be dealing with a serious Achilles tear. That’d be a brutal blow to the Jets, who are counting on Lawson to spearhead their new 4-3 scheme.
Lawson, a former fourth-round pick of the Bengals, delivered serious pressure to opposing quarterbacks last season. He notched a modest 5.5 sacks, but his 32 QB hits were bested only by T.J. Watt.
The Jets gladly scooped him up with a three-year, $45MM deal with a chance to make up to $47.4MM. The deal included a whopping $30MM guaranteed to fill the Jets’ longstanding edge rusher void. Previous efforts to land the likes of Khalil Mack and Anthony Barr fell short — the hope is that Lawson can kick off a new era for the Jets’ front seven.
Lawson has managed to bounce back from serious injuries in the past. Despite suffering a torn ACL in 2018, he’s still managed to put together an impressive resume over the last four seasons. The Jets are hoping for the best this time around, but they might need another lineman to join Quinnen Williams and Folorunso Fatukasi up front.
Crappy. I mean, nobody actually wants to play for the Jets, but never wish injury on anyone. Get well soon big man.
The curse of Namath lives on, poor Jets can’t win in Free Agency lately.
Glad he got paid! Heal up Carl.
Make a trade W/Bears Pennel might not make the team but he is still outstanding for a 6Th round pick or 7th
I don’t think Pennel is a good replacement for Lawson, as the former is a run-stuffing nose tackle, while the latter is more of a do-it-all defensive end. Fatukasi and Williams are a solid pair inside; the issue will be finding replacement edge rushers