It looks as though Junior Galette's long-awaited debut with the Washington Redskins will again be put on hold.
Galette has torn his right Achilles tendon and is out for the season, NFL Media's Rand Getlin reported per a source familiar with injury. Galette suffered the injury while working out, Getlin added.
On Thursday, the Redskins placed Galette on the reserve/non-football injury list.
Galette missed the 2015 season with the same injury to the opposite leg, suffered during practice in August 2015. He's still yet to play a meaningful down with the Redskins after signing a one-year deal in 2015, following a falling out with the New Orleans Saintsthat resulted in his release. Despite the injury, Galette re-upped with the Redskins in March on another one-year deal that could be worth up to $4.1 million.
Understandably frustrated with his injury struggles -- Galette was dealing with a torn pectoral before he was cut by the Saints -- he tweeted a video of himself Monday working out. Although it doesn't seem to show much, it does include an accompanying message lamenting his bad luck.
"Junior did everything he had to do to get his Achilles ready to play this year, worked as hard as anybody in the weight room,” Redskins head coach Jay Gruden told ESPN 950 in Richmond, via the team's official site. "He was doing some standard get-offs I guess and popped the other [Achilles].
"I had a player in Cinncinnati, Leon Hall, who did the same thing. But he came back and played a couple years after that, and I'm sure Junior will bounce back. It's going to be hard on him this year, but he'll bounce back in a big way."
Prior to his off-field issues and subsequent release, Galette was among the league's best young pass rushers. Lined up on the opposite end of the line from fellow rusher Cameron Jordan, the two wreaked havoc on opposing quarterbacks, with Galette recording 22 sacks combined between 2013 and 2014. New Orleans paid him as such, inking him to a four-year, $41.3 million extension before the problems outside of work and in the locker room made the Saints do a 180 and dump him.
And even after that, the Redskins adding Galette seemed to be a cheap pickup with potential for great reward. A year and a half later, it looks like Washington won't see any return on the deal.