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Dante Fowler out for 2015 season with torn ACL

By Josh Hill

Apr 30, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Dante Fowler Jr. (Florida) poses for a photo with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell after being selected as the number third overall pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 30, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Dante Fowler Jr. (Florida) poses for a photo with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell after being selected as the number third overall pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jacksonville Jaguars rookie defensive end Dante Fowler will miss the 2015 season after tearing his ACL in practice on Friday.

Dante Fowler will not be building the first step of his career in 2015, as the rookie will play his first down of professional football in 2016. This isn’t due to an ineligility clause or a suspension — instead, Fowler helplessly tore his ACL on Friday in his first practice with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Fowler was the No. 3 overall pick in the NFL Draft this year behind Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, but he’s not going to be in their company until next year.

After the knee injury on Friday, it was confirmed that Dante Fowler will miss the entire 2015 season with a torn ACL.

This is just absolutely brutal, as Fowler wasn’t even an hour into being a professional player when he ripped up his ACL. Furthermore, Fowler wasn’t even technically a pro, as he has yet to sign his contract with the Jaguars. According to Mike Garafolo from FOX Sports though, it appears that the Jaguars will still pay Fowler a fully guaranteed $23.5 million deal.

That’s silver lining here, but hardly so. Fowler has a lot of promise coming out of Florida, but there were doubts as to whether or not he’d be able to live up to the hype presented before him. That’s not going to happen until at least 2016, and the ACL injury puts even more pressure on him to succeed in the future while silmultaniously placing an impossible hurdle in front of him.

It’s one thing to tear your ACL while playing under contract, but it’s entirely different to do so before you’ve even played a single down in the NFL.

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