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The Buffalo Bills on Monday announced that Shaq Lawson, the team's first-round pick in this year's NFL draft, would undergo shoulder surgery on Tuesday. Another Bills' first-rounder, wide receiver Sammy Watkins, also had surgery. Watkins, the team's top pick in 2014, is scheduled for surgery to have a screw inserted in his broken foot and could miss several months according to multiple reports.
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Shoulder surgery is expected to sideline Lawson, the No. 19 pick out of Clemson in April, for up to six months.
"The Buffalo Bills are taking measures to prevent the possibility of Shaq Lawson aggravating a pre-existing shoulder condition during the season," the Bills said in a statement.
Lawson was a dominant defensive end while at Clemson, but questions surrounding the health of his shoulder pushed his stock value down.
Buffalo general manager Doug Whaley issued a brief statement after drafting Lawson saying team doctors evaluated his shoulder and said he would be fine in his first year.
On Monday, Whaley released the following statement before news of Watkins' injury broke via the Buffalo News:
"I want to take this opportunity to commend Shaq Lawson and his representatives for putting the team first by having this surgery on his shoulder done now. By doing so, he's forsaking personal goals to be 100 percent healthy when we will need him most during the regular season."
A timetable for his return is being developed between the team and Lawson's representatives.
The six-month rehab expectation places Lawson's return in November.
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant missed 10 weeks last season with a broken foot and said he returned too soon. Bryant underwent another procedure in the offseason.
Hakeem Nicks, a former first-round pick of the New York Giants, had foot surgery in May 2012 and was given a timetable of 12 weeks. He said last season while trying to latch on with any team as a free agent that he never fully recovered his explosivness off the line of scrimmage after that injury.
