La’el Collins says he dislocated his kneecap vs. Patriots

La’el Collins’ injury looked real bad at first, but it sounds like he won’t miss much time.

UPDATE 2

Following the Bengals’ scorigami win over the Patriots, right tackle La’el Collins revealed his injury was a dislocated kneecap that was eventually popped back into place.

Collins believes if he misses time, it will just be the Week 17 matchup with the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football.

Ironically, fellow Bengals tackle Jonah Williams suffered the same injury in Week 5 vs. the Baltimore Ravens and actually returned to play in the same game.

There will be more testing done to determine if there’s any other damage, but it appears Collins’ season is not over.

In the meantime, expect Hakeem Adeniji to be the Bengals’ starting right tackle until Collins is healthy enough to play again.

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UPDATE

For the time being, it looks like La’el Collins avoided an ACL tear, according to Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Kelsey Conway.

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The Cincinnati Bengals will be without La’el Collins for the rest of their game against the New England Patriots. The first-year Bengal had his leg rolled up on by a defender and instantly trainers were called onto the field by players from both sides.

While he was initially able to walk off the field with the assistance from two trainers, he was later carted from the medical tent to the locker room.

Now, the Bengals have declared him OUT of the game with a left leg injury.

Collins will be replaced at right tackle with Hakeem Adeniji, who has played a handful of snaps each game as a sixth offensive lineman. He has also replaced Collins sparingly during the season.

This starting offensive line unit had the most snaps together of any unit in the NFL, but we will have to see if this disruption has a serious impact on that continuity they had going.

We will update this story if more details become available.