In late June, Taylor Moton came home to Charlotte from a youth football camp in Michigan with chest congestion. Then he started coughing up blood. Tests found multiple clots in his right lung and blood pressure the team described as dangerously high.
On Friday, Carolina listed him as questionable to play football on Sunday.
How he got here
Moton, 32, was put on blood thinners after the June diagnosis. Team physician Dr. Nancy Gritter initially said he would miss training camp, the preseason and the start of the regular season. He is now off the thinners, doctors have cleared him for contact, and he continues to be monitored.
His 21-day practice window opened Tuesday, Oct. 13. He returned to practice that week. Friday’s questionable tag is his first game designation of the season.
His own explanation of the decision to come off blood thinners and play was short.
“I just decided to take those risks and get back to it,” Moton said. He called the episode scary and said he was happy to be able to get back to work. Head coach Dave Canales has called him the fun uncle of the team.
The durability record is absurd
Before this, Moton played 145 of a possible 146 games across his first nine seasons and started every game but one over the last eight years. Only Jordan Gross, with 167, has more starts among offensive linemen in Panthers history.
That is the context that makes the June news land differently. This is not a player who had been managing a body that kept breaking. This is the most reliable offensive lineman the franchise has had in a decade, taken out by something that had nothing to do with football.
Carolina needs him more than it would like to admit
The line is in flux. Rookie right tackle Monroe Freeling, who has been filling in, is doubtful with a knee injury for the same game. Guard Damien Lewis is questionable with an elbow. So are linebacker Jaelan Phillips, running back Trevor Etienne and defensive lineman Tershawn Wharton. Running back AJ Dillon is out with an ankle.
Bryce Young, Jalen Coker, Darren Waller and Tommy Tremble carry no designation.
One procedural note that matters: a player in a 21-day practice window has to be activated to the 53-man roster before he can play, and Carolina has not done that yet. Questionable does not mean activated. The Panthers also did not specify his Friday participation level.
The timing is a coincidence worth naming carefully
Carolina hosts Philadelphia on Sunday, the same week the Eagles ruled Jalen Hurts out indefinitely with a superficial blood clot in his leg.
Those are not the same condition and should not be treated as the same story. Moton’s clots were pulmonary, in the lung, which is the acutely dangerous presentation. Hurts has a superficial clot, which is a different and less immediately threatening problem. Two players in one game dealing with clotting issues is a coincidence, not a trend, and anybody packaging it as one is reaching.
What is not a coincidence is that a 32-year-old right tackle who was told in June that he would miss the start of the season is on an NFL injury report in the middle of October with a chance to play. Carolina is 2-2. Whether he suits up on Sunday or in two weeks, that is the most impressive thing on the Panthers’ injury report.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.