ATLANTA — Rookie running back Matt Jones was unable to finish Sunday’s game after suffering a big toe sprain. Meanwhile, left tackle Trent Williams wasn’t permitted to speak to reporters after the game because he was being evaluated for some type of illness, a team spokesman said.
However, later in the game, Jones was announced as having sprained a toe. The team didn’t yet know how serious his injury was immediately following the game, Coach Jay Gruden said.
Williams played the entire game but was slow to get dressed afterwards. Williams sat at his locker, staring at the floor, like a number of his teammates did following the gut-wrenching loss. However, a member of the team’s public relations staff stood in front of his locker, turning away reporters requesting an interview with the offensive captain.
Gruden didn’t announce Williams as a member of the injury report immediately following the game.
Public relations chief Tony Wyllie said Williams was being evaluated for a concussion. (Under the league’s concussion monitoring protocol, players suffering from head-related injury symptoms are not permitted to be interviewed following games).
But shortly after, Wyllie said that he misspoke and that after probing the team’s medical staff further he learned it was not a concussion but some other kind of illness. Wyllie, the team’s senior vice president of communications, said Williams felt ill once he came into the locker room following the game and was being evaluated and thus wouldn’t be speaking to reporters because he didn’t feel well.