The Kansas City Chiefs’ 38-20 loss to the Buffalo Bills left the team battered and bruised with a number of injuries to key players.
Typically, when you hear that a player has broken something, you expect that it’ll keep them out for some time. That wasn’t the case for Chiefs LG Joe Thuney. After the game, we learned that Thuney had suffered a fractured hand during the course of the game.
On Monday morning, we learned that he played nearly the entire game against the Bills with his injury. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Thuney broke his hand on the first series of the game. He put a cast on the injured hand on the sidelines and went back out there to play the entire game, not missing a single snap in the process.
#Chiefs G Joe Thuney will have more tests today on his fractured hand, but consider: He broke it on the first series, put it in a cast… and played the entire game. Some of these guys are a bit different.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 11, 2021
That’s an incredible display of toughness from the Chiefs’ high-priced free agent left guard, but it shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Thuney played 975 NFL snaps before he missed his first snap. During his five-year career with the New England Patriots, he never missed a game.
Another remarkable part about this? Thuney was basically perfect during the game protecting Patrick Mahomes during the game. He was allowed just one pressure on 37 pass-blocking snaps according to Pro Football Focus. He had a harder time in the ground game, but that’s to be expected given the injury.
Even though Thuney is due for more tests on his fractured hand today, I’d be shocked if he didn’t try to play through the injury. I’d expect him out there with some sort of cast or club on his hand moving forward.
