Greg McElroy on the Bryce Young injury: 'I anticipate him being out there'

ESPN analyst Greg McElroy believes Alabama quarterback Bryce Young will make his return from an AC joint injury Saturday. Young missed last week’s contest against Texas A&M, and will be needed as the Crimson Tide prepare for their biggest matchup of the season against No. 6 Tennessee.

McElroy appeared on the Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday, where he assessed the likelihood Young will be ready to go. Although he didn’t confirm with 100% certainty that the quarterback will play, he provided a couple of reasons why he expects him to.

“He’s capable of playing, but at this point I don’t know for sure,” McElroy said. “Will he play without pain? That is probably unlikely. I think that this is an injury that will take some time and the only thing that’s going to stop it from hurting is time. Unfortunately, at this point, time is not on their side. However, based on what I’ve been told, it’s highly unlikely that the injury can be further aggravated by playing on it, which is great news.

“So I anticipate him being out there, it’s just a matter of whether or not he is without limitations. Like we talked about last week, you’re dealing with an injury that almost all about pain management. How you manage the pain is kind of up to the extent of the injury and the player himself.”

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Alabama’s offense will need to be ready to keep up with Tennessee, which ranks second in the country with 46.8 points per game. Last week with Young out, the Crimson Tide committed four turnovers and scored the second-fewest amount of points they have all season.

But even if Young returns, it is not a guarantee of success. There is also the question of whether he is truly 100% healthy, and if he isn’t, how he plays through the pain. Greg McElroy broke down how this type of injury affects every player different, touching on both the physical and mental aspects as it applied to Bryce Young.

“Everyone’s throwing motion is a little bit different and the AC joint is stressed in different places based on the throwing motion,” he said. “So it’s difficult for me to tell you exactly how close he’ll be to 100%. With the adrenaline and maybe extra anti-inflammatories that they can potentially help him with, I would think he’ll be as close to 100% as he can possibly be. But like we talked about last week, it just depends on can you throw mentally throw without any limitations? Can you knowingly pull it back and cut it loose knowing it’s going to hurt in the process of doing so? We’re talking about conscious versus subconscious here. If I know that I’m about to do something that’s about to hurt and be very painful for me, can I actually do it without any physical restriction whatsoever? I don’t know. I think it depends on the person.

“I’ve been very impressed with everything I’ve seen from Bryce Young up to this point, though, in being fearless and tough and capable of hanging in there knowing he’s not the biggest guy in the world and he’s likely gonna get hit. He hasn’t shied away from that in the past, which speaks to just how mentally strong he is. So I think he’ll play well. Ultimately, if he doesn’t play well, they’ll lose. It’s as simple as that. If he does, they have a very good chance of winning in what is likely to be the most hostile environment he has seen even this year.”

Alabama and Tennessee are scheduled to kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday in Knoxville.