HOUSTON – Texans rookie defensive lineman Kyonte Hamilton suffered a fractured ankle and was carted off the practice field Wednesday morning after his leg was immobilized in an air cast.
Hamilton is scheduled to undergo surgery Thursday afternoon and is expected to require a recovery time of roughly four months and be placed on injured reserve, per a league source.
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Hamilton got hurt Wednesday morning during a full-team drill and was down on the ground for several minutes receiving medical attention. Practice became silent as teammates prayed for Hamilton. He was then taken off the field inside to the training room for further evaluation. A magnetic resonance imaging exam revealed the extent of the damage.
“Unfortunately, injuries and things happen,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said after practice. “You never want to see a guy go down like Kyonte did today and had to be carted off. We just wish him the best. We’ll continue to evaluate him and see where he is, but you never want to see that. We just got to make sure we are staying up and protecting each other.
At Rutgers, the Maryland native recorded 110 career tackles, 11 for losses, six sacks and one fumble recovery and one forced fumble with 45 quarterback pressures.
He was previously signed to a four-year $4.81 million contract with a $138,328 signing bonus with base salaries of $840,000, $1.058 million, $1.277 million and $1.495 million.
Hamilton was an honorable-mention All-Big Ten Conference selection. He was also an academy All-Big Ten selection.
Hamilton recorded 44 tackles, five for losses, four sacks and 24 pressures last season.
“He’s an NFL player,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. “He’s strong, he’s tough, he’s durable, intelligent. He’s even a better person than he is a football player.”
As a senior, he started every game with nine starts at tackle, four at end.
“Coach Schiano, obviously he has experience in the NFL, but what he’s done with the Rutgers program, I think you understand the profile of the players that they’re bringing in, and there’s certainly a developmental aspect to those programs,” Texans general manager Nick Caserio said when asked about drafting players from Rutgers and the Iowa program led by veteran coach Kirk Ferentz. “They’re coached hard and they prepare hard and they compete. That shows up in their play. There’s a lot of programs that we have a lot of respect for throughout the country, and certainly those coaches deserve that.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com .
