Quinn Ewers injury: Texas QB pulls back curtain on oblique, ankle issues he had

Texas QB Quinn Ewers didn’t have the season he fully wanted as a junior this past fall. However, part of that is because, by his estimate, he played just a fraction of the year fully healthy.

Ewers addressed his status from over the course of last season while speaking with the media at the NFL Combine on Friday. He specifically had to reference the abdominal strain, which has been reported as an oblique injury from early on in September.

“Yeah, so, the oblique – it started popping up on me the Monday after we played Michigan,” said Ewers. “Just kind of thought it was a little tweak and then, throughout practice, kind of got worse and worse and worse. And then, obviously, it kind of just popped against UTSA.”

“They labeled it as a sprain but it didn’t feel like just a sprain,” Ewers said.

The injury would cost him nearly three quarters of the rest of that game on September 14th before missing two more games, with those starts going to Arch Manning. Ewers then got a bye week as well, or about a month off in total, ahead of his return in the Red River Rivalry on October 12th.

Ewers would then later have an ankle injury he suffered against Kentucky on November 23rd. That would affect him throughout the rest of the season with one more game in the regular season, the SEC Championship, and three games in the College Football Playoff.

So, over 14 appearances, Ewers says he was only fully healthy for the first two and about three in total.

“I’d probably say I played, I played two games, maybe three games healthy if you’re counting the first two and then maybe one between the ankle and the oblique,” Ewers admitted.

Ewers did manage a career-high in touchdown passes with 31 and was eight yards shy of another career-best as he had 3,472 yards. His completion rate did go down to 65.8%, though, while also doubling his career-worst in interceptions with a dozen.

Injuries had an impact on Ewers’ collegiate career, including this final season. He’ll now have to prove those are things that won’t linger as a prospect with him coming into the NFL Draft.