Walker, Jenkins lost to knee injuries

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005 | 10:01 a.m.

SUN WIRE SERVICES

The Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers already have serious injury problems after one week of the season.

The Packers lost their top wide receiver, Javon Walker, for the year, and the Panthers will be without their best defensive tackle and run stopper, Kris Jenkins. Both tore knee ligaments in losses Sunday.

Walker will need an operation once the swelling subsides to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament and will require between eight and 12 months of rehabilitation.

Walker was hurt in the third quarter of the Packers' 17-3 loss at Detroit when he pushed off safety Terrence Holt on a 55-yard catch that was negated by his offensive interference.

With Walker down, Robert Ferguson will start alongside Donald Driver, who will move from split end to flanker. Ferguson is the Packers' best special teams player, but might be taken off those units now.

Jenkins missed all but four games last season with a shoulder injury that required surgery. Now, the 2003 All-Pro is gone again, with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

Although he was injured in the first quarter, he said Monday he didn't realize the severity and briefly returned to the field in the third quarter before leaving for good.

"I didn't think it was that bad ... it felt like I had hyperextended it at first," he said. "I could still run on the thing. I know that's a little odd.

"When I went back out there, I realized then I had torn something big."

Coach Joe Gibbs had prepared for nearly a year for Ramsey to be the 2005 starter, but the coach changed his mind after Ramsey threw an interception and fumbled twice in Sunday's game before leaving with a mild neck injury.

"This is something that is extremely hard," Gibbs said Monday. "You don't like doing this. I don't. Sometimes you don't chart the circumstances or what happens -- it just happens. Certainly it wasn't the plan I had going in, but sometimes plans change, and I think you do the best you can in dealing with it."

The Redskins are looking for a kicker after John Hall strained his quad muscle on his last kickoff Sunday, an injury similar to one that ended his injury-riddled season last year. And right tackle Jon Jansen sported two casts on his two broken thumbs. He broke the left one in practice last week and the right one in the game.

Bailey hurt his left shoulder making a tackle in the third quarter of Denver's 34-10 loss to Miami on Sunday. Anderson went out in the first quarter.

He broke tackles, made cuts and bounced up after hard hits. He might not have been as explosive as in his younger days, but he promises that will return, too.

"Each game I'm going to get better," Taylor said. "That's the plan. I'm going to get this thing back to where I was."

Coach Jeff Fisher said Jones really must "buckle down."

"We're going to place him in some key roles on special teams. He'll accept them. He'll have to excel there and really buckle down on defense, become familiar and convince us he has a really good understanding," Fisher said.

"I probably bruised him today myself," Holmgren said. "I didn't think we played very smart on offense."

Leading 14-13 at halftime, Seattle's offense went stagnant in the second half, gaining just 100 yards and turning over the ball three times in the fourth quarter, all by Hasselbeck.

"Everyone has had a couple (of concussions), but it's been a long time since I had one," Morton said Monday. "I'm going to be ready to go."