Eric Fisher still struggling after offseason shoulder surgery

AP

The first overall pick in last year’s NFL draft is still struggling.

Last year, Kansas City’s Eric Fisher struggled at right tackle as a rookie. This year, the Chiefs have moved Fisher to left tackle, and he’s still struggling. His performance Sunday against the Panthers was rough, and coach Andy Reid said afterward that Fisher is still feeling the effects of offseason shoulder surgery.

“Any time you’re coming off a significant injury you have to continue to battle through and that’s what this preseason has been for him,” Reid said, via ArrowheadPride.com. “He’s coming off of a shoulder surgery and you saw how he started the game. He started off like gangbusters and then as that arm gets tired he has a tendency to not shoot it quite as fast as he would when it’s fresh. I’m not sure he’s even conscious of that. You see that with players coming off knees, same thing. As the game goes on, they don’t play off it as well as they do earlier in the game.”

Maybe Fisher will get better when his shoulder gets healthier. Or maybe Fisher just isn’t good enough, and the Chiefs will soon realize they made a mistake with the first pick in the draft. Either way, the Chiefs can’t feel comfortable right now with their left tackle situation.

34 responses to “Eric Fisher still struggling after offseason shoulder surgery

  1. That draft is looking bad so I suppose they had no choice but to pick a tackle at #1. IMO I wouldn’t take a tackle in the top 15. They help but not enough to change a team around. Guys like Ogden and Pace are great but it took a strong defense or godly offense to win the super bowl.

  2. Funny how all the Chiefs fans were always saying how huge of a bust Gallery was with the Raiders. I’d take Gallery over this BUST any day.

  3. if he struggles the wildcard is Stephenson. he can play LT, and is really more of a natural LT himself. he showed stability when called upon last year and is in his 3rd year. came in as a Raw played like Fisher and is just a lot further along.

    if fisher goes down like he seems likely to do so, the sky is not falling unless Stephenson is down too. they also have Ryan Harris to slide over to RT, and that isn’t a terrible T group.

  4. For his sake I hope that awful performance last night was injury impaired. That kid has a LOT of work to do to even look a 1st round pick at all, much less the 1st overall.

  5. Packers took Bahktiari in the fourth round and he’s a better LT than the #1 overall pick.

  6. I would disagree that Fisher is “Struggling”. He paid pretty well last night, against a Good D Line. Did he get beat once or twice, Yeah. Did it lead to sacks, No. I think he will get progressively better as the year progresses. I think the switch to right tackle hurt him a lot. Go Chiefs!

  7. the brain trust in k.c. should have looked at andy’s use of a first round pick on danny watkins and not let him choose which o-lineman to draft.

    if you look at andy’s last three drafts in philly, he missed so often in 2010 and 2011 that the so-so draft of 2012 was too late to help.

    in ’10 the eagles had 13 picks stockpiled. and their best pick was the ninth player they selected: riley cooper with the 159th pick in the 5th round.

    and in ’11 they had 11 picks. this time the best pick was jason kelce with the 191th pick in the sixth round. not much help out of 24 draft picks.

    i’m pretty sure throwing darts at a board would have yielded better results.

    so if you are gonna let andy cook dinner,

    1. hope he isn’t forced to modify his recipe.

    2. don’t let him pick the groceries.

  8. Really surprised that they didn’t stick with Fisher on the right side and let him continue to get acclimated at that position rather then changing positions again especially considering how much missed time he had in the offseason with his surgery recovery.

    Like someone mentioned above Stephenson is really much more suited for LT and played really well last year in spot starts replacing Brandon Albert and probably outplayed Albert for the most part.

  9. When the season preceding Fisher’s draft ended, the favored O-linemen were Joeckel and Johnson, not Fisher.

    Sometime after they *stopped* playing football and before they were drafted, Fisher became the draftnik’s darling and wound up being picked ahead of those two. Maybe it was his performance at the combines, or maybe it was something else.

    But now that Joeckel and Johnson are solid performers and Fisher isn’t, I can’t say I’m surprised.

  10. guys, stop blaming andy reid. john Dorsey has final say on all draft decisions. this has been stated multiple times by both reid and Dorsey.

    is there input? of course. but its 51/49 Dorsey, and he has final say

    so the man who has proven to be one heck of a waiver wire hunter seems to struggle with his first round picks.

  11. Just like the NBA teams draft for potential, some NFL teams do too…

    Joeckel was the better tackle to begin day 1.

    SOME, not all but some, said Fisher had a higher ceiling.

    The same mistake was made in this years draft too.

    Matthews was taken #6 and he’ll be better than the #2 pick Robinson by the Rams.

  12. I rewound all his first half botched blocks, when took place play after play.

    Not sure what Andy meant about Fisher’s early play was fine. Just excuses.

    Eric Fisher is a stiff, worst since Brian Jozwiak.

  13. buffaloisadumpsterandtheirfansaremorons says: Aug 18, 2014 4:59 PM

    Same reason why Khalil Mack will do nothing. Crappy competition. Those Akron Zips aren’t the juggernaut you’re hoping for.
    ——————–
    College competition is not an accurate measure. Might as well claim that every SEC player drafted will succeed.

  14. Chefs fans need not despair. The ketchup & mustard crew will probably have another chance to get it right when they wind up with a top-5 draft pick in the 2015 draft.

  15. Faider fans need not despair. The stool sampling crew will probably have another chance to get it right when they wind up with #1 draft pick in the 2015 draft.

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