BALTIMORE – Texans standout safety Jalen Pitre, after bruising his lung against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, was released from Maryland Shock Trauma Hospital on Monday, per a league source.
Pitre can now return home to Houston with his parents, who were with him at the game and at the hospital after he suffered the injury, which included coughing up blood at one point.
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The second-year safety and Stafford graduate remained overnight in Baltimore for further evaluation as a precautionary measure, per a league source. Pitre was transported to Maryland Shock Trauma at halftime after being examined by medical staff and was in good spirits and responsive, per a source.
Pitre took a left knee to the chest late in the first half from star quarterback Lamar Jackson while he was hitting him on a blitz. He was examined in the blue medical tent before going to the locker room for further testing. He was then ruled out for the second half.
“We’ll see where Jalen is,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “He’s still getting tests to see how he’s doing.”
Meanwhile, the hard-luck injury situation across the offensive line has continued. Right tackle George Fant left the game with a right shoulder injury. Fant suffered a shoulder stinger and it is not regarded as a long-term injury with a best-case scenario of recovering within a week or two, per a source.
This was nonetheless a difficult loss for the offensive line to absorb.
“We’ll continue to shuffle and see what’s the best group that we have,” Ryans said. “We’ll put the best group out that we have available. We moved all those guys around a lot. There have been a lot of moving pieces up front. Multiple guys have had to play multiple positions, so that’s been our way of handling it up front.”
Fant was replaced by guard-center Michael Deiter before Josh Jones was shifted over from left guard to right tackle after one snap as Deiter allowed a strip sack with rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud fumbling the football away to Michael Pierce.
“I tried to do what was best for the team,” Jones said. “It’s kind of tough being in that situation as an offensive line with a lot of guys going down, but I think we’re capable of playing at a high level with whoever we have going out there. After the fumble, I played all of the rest of them at right tackle.”
Regular right tackle Tytus Howard is on injured reserve after undergoing hand surgery. Plus, Josh Jones was already plugged in at left guard with Kenyon Green out for the season with a torn labrum. And the Texans were already down to Plan C at center with rookie Jarrett Patterson stepping in as the starter in his first NFL game with Scott Quessenberry out for the season with torn knee ligaments and Juice Scruggs on injured reserve with a strained hamstring.
“It feels like bad luck with injuries,” right guard Shaq Mason said. “We’ve got to get guys healthy and get them back.”
Pro Bowl left offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil chalked up the situation to the usual ebb and flow of the NFL.
“Just roll with it,” Tunsil said. “That’s the main thing, got to roll with it. You can’t worry about the injuries, have to worry about the next man up and getting the job done.”
The Texans, already missing starting safety Jimmie Ward due to a hip injury, replaced Pitre with M.J. Stewart. Eric Murray started with Ward out.
As a rookie, Pitre, a former Big 12 Conference Defensive Player of the Year led the Texans with 147 tackles and five interceptions.
Pitre recorded the most tackles among all NFL rookies and became the first player to record more than 125 tackles and intercept five passes since the tackle statistic began being tracked in 2000, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He played 93 percent of the Texans’ total defensive snaps, rarely leaving the field.
Texans backup defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway, a key member of the defensive line rotation, was listed as questionable to return with a calf injury.
“It’s a long season,” Murray said. “We put a lot of emphasis on the first game, but just got to learn from it and grow from it. It’s always been like that. We help each other.
“We know the work we put in. Whoever’s opportunity it is, just steps in. We did some good things on defense. Until the half, it was a pretty tight game. Got to keep building, don’t want to have that sentiment every game like last year.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com.
