Seantrel Henderson hasn’t had an easy recovery this off-season during his battle with Crohn’s disease, but he seems to finally be ready for some football. So, what’s the hold-up?
For the past two seasons, Seantrel Henderson has been the Buffalo Bills‘ strongest link when it comes to the right tackle position. There’s no doubt our left side of the offensive line is one of the best in the league, but our right side could be one of the weakest. Without Henderson, that becomes evident.
Before training camp started, I wrote a piece on Henderson and his battle with Crohn’s disease, noting that the Bills had two options with him. The first was to keep him on the roster and hope he heals in time for Week 1. The second, place him on an injured list — giving us an extra roster spot and giving him more than enough time to heal.
All in all, I originally predicted that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Bills place him on an injured list if one of the two backups (Jordan Mills or Cyrus Kouandjio) stepped up during training camp. When training camp ended, what we saw was two backups that were in no way ready to man the right tackle position.
This raised concerns for an offensive line that is clearly one-sided.
As the regular season started to creep up on us, Henderson remained on the active roster after the Bills decided to not place him on an injured list. That meant that although he might not be 100% healthy, he had at least shown enough progress that it wasn’t worth guaranteeing him six weeks off — which is how long he would’ve been out if placed on the NFI list.
We first saw Henderson back on the field for the final week of training camp and then was featured in the Bills’ third preseason game vs. the Washington Redskins. In that game, Henderson saw about half of the team’s offensive snaps at right tackle. However, the Bills would later announce that he had more medical issues and since that game, we haven’t seen him.
That all changed on Tuesday, when the team — once again — welcomed Henderson back to the field for practice, which he was a full participant in. Rex Ryan was open about the progress he has seen from Henderson, saying that him returning was a big step. However, he didn’t commit to saying he would be active for their Week 1 matchup vs. the Baltimore Ravens.
On Wednesday, we received even more news about Henderson, but it wasn’t positive news. The team announced that he was facing a 4-game suspension handed down by the league for violating the NFL Substance Abuse Policy — a suspension identical to Marcell Dareus. It was later reported by Ian Rapoport that he had tested positive for marijuana and that Henderson would appeal the suspension.
The fact that he tried to appeal the suspension could mean that the marijuana was used to help him in his battle with Crohn’s disease. It has been studied and proven that medical marijuana can be used to help relieve pain, inflammation, nausea and cramping in Crohn’s disease patients. It can even lead to the complete remission of the disease.
It’s possible that this was the reason he was using marijuana — hence the appeal.
Today, the team announced that the appeal was unsuccessful and that Henderson would be forced to face the suspension.
This means that he will be out of commission until after Sunday, October 9th when they face the Los Angeles Rams. The team will now have to rely on Jordan Mills to handle the right tackle position, who relieved Henderson for the final five games last season. Cyrus Kouandjio will serve as the team’s swing tackle with Mills and Cordy Glenn as the starters.
Although neither Mills or Kouandjio have proven themselves worthy this season, at least Mills has experience with this offensive group.
At the end of the day, I didn’t expect Henderson to see any action early this season. Getting him healthy is way more important than getting him playing time, so we must cater to that first. Being suspended for four games will give him that time to be exactly where he needs to be come Week 5.
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There’s no doubt that this offensive line will take a step forward when he returns to action.
Let’s all hope for the best in regards to Seantrel Henderson and pray that Jordan Mills is ready to breakout this year — or else Tyrod Taylor might need to use his legs a bit more than expected.
What do you think of Henderson’s four-game suspension? Leave your comments below!