Andre Johnson Injury: Will Leg Injury Doom Texans' Playoff Chances?

Andre Johnson has suffered a hamstring injury and not a knee injury, as initially feared.

Houston Texans beat writer John McClain tweeted “Looks like Andre Johnson has a strained hamstring and not a knee injury. Hamstrings have hamstrung Texans since start of preseason.”

Greg Sansone also contributed this from Twitter: “He clearly grabbed his knee but CBS says: Andre Johnson has a strained right hamstring & his return is ‘questionable’.”

I would not expect to see Johnson return in this game, as they are doing alright on offense without him and he is far too valuable to the future of this franchise going forward than winning this early season game.

If the Texans offense can keep pounding out yards on the ground and keep the Pittsburgh offense stymied, they can still very likely win the game, so don’t look for Johnson to gut one out and return today.

Hamstring injuries, depending on the severity, can keep you sidelined for an indeterminable amount of time.

For example, Jeremy Maclin is playing this week after tweaking a hammy, but Miles Austin will be sitting until Week 6 with his injury.

I don’t think this will doom the Texans’ playoff chances because Johnson has proven to be a relatively healthy guy throughout his career and has not missed many games.

If he properly rests and recovers from this injury, he should be back in time to help contribute to the Texans’ first playoff run.

Bryant Johnson, Kevin Walter, Jacoby Jones and the tight end corps of Owen Daniels, Joel Dreessen and James Casey will be expected to replace his production while he is gone.

This is a more than capable group of pass-catches, so look for the Texans to be okay, especially if Arian Foster really is as healthy as he looks and says he is.