After breaking out in the middle of the 2019 season, wide receiver Hunter Renfrow had to miss two games because of a rib injury. With the Las Vegas Raiders still in the mix for the playoffs, he went back in to the field in Week 16 against the L.A. Chargers.
In his lastest Upon Further Review podcast, Eddie Paskal talks to Renfrow about what transpired that day in Carson, California.
Looking back, Renfrow says, “that was a crazy day, I remember that day very well because we still had a chance at the playoffs and I mean, nobody thought we had chance. I didn’t really necessarily believe we had a chance, but there’s 10 things that had to happen so we had to go play hard.”
Raiders Blog: Regarding his recovery…
Regarding his recovery, the receiver mentioned that “It was quick, but I wanted it to be quick. I knew that we were right there until the New York game with the playoffs we were having a kind life surge at it and for me. For me, I just wanted to be on the field with my teammates, my brothers and that’s really why I wanted to be back so fast is if we still have a chance at this thing, we still have chance at playoffs then I want to do everything I can to get us in potential playoff victory and go on the Super Bowl.”
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It’s important to point out that Renfrow wasn’t fully healthy when he went back for the last two games of the 2019 season, but he knew what was at stake. To that, he said “for me I was, when it happened it hurt for sure. I just wanted to get back. I didn’t want to rush it, but at the same time I felt like I could play the next week. It was my lung that had to heal, my ribs felt fine. For the most part I was lucky that it didn’t hurt too bad, but I really just wanted to get back and I knew that I could play. I had what, six months to recover? I could get back for two games at the very least”.
The Return
Renfrow didn’t disappoint and in his first catch of the game, he scored a 56-yard touchdown.
Hunter Renfrow had a birthday yesterday and now has a 56 yard touchdown agianst the #Chargers pic.twitter.com/vKNlIxZ8oW
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 22, 2019
It’s impressive considering that Renfrow hadn’t prepared much ahead of the game. He said that it felt good to be back: “Yeah, it did because like I didn’t get to practice much during those three weeks so I just had to watch from the sidelines. I sat with Fred Biletnikoff and we just talked every day and we just talked about what his process was like so I just got to learn. Looking at the bright side, I got to learn a lot from him sitting there. It was really good to just get back, get back with my teammates, get back in the huddle, hearing the verbiage, it just, any competitive environment that I can go and help them out.”
The bar might be set high for Renfrow in 2020, but based on what he did last year, he shouldn’t have much trouble fulfilling expectations.
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