Dalton Kincaid
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Dalton Kincaid has revealed graphic details of the injury to his right knee.
The Buffalo Bills obviously had high hopes for tight end Dalton Kincaid, drafting him with their first-round pick in 2023, 25th overall, out of Utah. Kincaid became the first tight end drafted by the Bills with their top selection in 40 years, and only the fourth in Bills history dating back to 1960.
In 1983, Buffalo took Notre Dame tight end Tony Hunter 12th overall. But the current Bills are hoping this first-round tight end turns out better for then than the last one. After he caught 69 passes in two seasons, the Bills traded Hunter to the Los Angeles Rams for quarterback Vince Ferragamo.
Hunter’s pick remains notable mainly because it came two picks ahead of the Bills second first-round spot owned by the Bills that year.
They used their second first-round pick to draft a quarterback from Miami named Jim Kelly. But Kelly did not want to play in Buffalo’s cold climate so he signed with the Houston Gamblers of the USFL, a spring pro football league then in operation, finally joining the Bills in 1986 following the USFL’s collapse.
Kincaid Has Yet to Live Up to 1st Round Billing
Heading into the third season big his $13.4 million rookie contract, however, Kincaid has largely been a disappointment. After a successful, 73-catch rookie season, he has had trouble getting on the same page as quarterback Josh Allen.
Bills general manager Brandon Beane warned Kincaid that he will “have to continue to work on his play strength.”
Kincaid also made the most infamous play of the Bills season when he dropped a pass from Allen in the AFC championship game with two minutes remaining and the Bills down by three. A catch would have given the Bills a first down and an excellent shot at a field goal, at least.
Instead, the drop ended their season.
But as Beane implied, Kincaid suffered a couple of injuries in 2024, including one painful and potentially dangerous knee injury which he discussed openly for the first time in a Buffalo News interview this week.
Saying that he wanted to be “transparent with everything” about his injuries, Kincaid told the paper that he was dealing with a Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) sprain in his left knee. But the injury to his right knee was much more unusual.
“It’s a pretty uncommon thing — it’s hard to pronounce,” Kincaid said in the interview. “It’s a Morel-Lavallee Lesion.”
Injury is Gruesome But Hard to Detect
The injury likely occurred in a Week 16 game against the New England Patriots, according to Dr. Kyle Trimble, a physical therapist who operates the Banged up Bills site documenting and discussing injuries to Buffalo players
#Bills Dalton Kincaid
Lands on bent R knee.
Looks like he lands on outside portion of leg vs directly on knee.
Very similar way how he fell when he injured his L knee against Colts, suffered a PCL sprain then.
Hoping contusion > sprain. We’ll see what 2nd half brings. pic.twitter.com/gtFRgrBYEs
— Banged Up Bills (@BangedUpBills) December 22, 2024
Kincaid went on to describe the injury as “a form of bursitis where basically the skin underneath the knee is filling up with fluid. That was something I’d never heard about before.”
A Morel-Lavallee Lesion is more traumatic than that, however. According to a paper published by the National Library of Medicine, “Morel-Lavallee lesions are soft tissue injuries seen in high-velocity trauma.”
They are caused by a “shearing force,” violent impact that tears skin away from the underlying fascia, which is tissue that “holds your muscles together, which allows them to contract and stretch. It provides a smooth surface for your muscles, joints and organs to slide against each other without creating any friction or tears,” according to the Cleveland Clinic.
If not properly treated, Morel-Lavallee lesions can be dangerous and even life-threatening, because the space between the torn-away skin and underlying tissue fills with fluid which can easily become infected.
The injury is most often seen in violent automobile and motorcycle accidents, and according to a 2023 Science Direct article can be “potentially devastating” without quick detection. But as many as 33 percent do not show up right away, making this type of injury difficult to diagnose.
How will the Morel-Lavallee lesion affect Kincaid as he approaches the 2025 Bills season? According to Trimble, with good treatment Kincaid should be ready to go, not only with the right knee “lesion” but the left knee PCL sprain as well
“Both should heal just fine,” Trimble wrote via social media. “The goal for both is to allow them to get the necessary rehab and recovery rather than managing it during the season with it becoming a chronic issue.”