Carolina Panthers veteran right tackle Taylor Moton was carted off the field with a fractured left fibula during Sunday’s 43-13 home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Panthers coach Dave Canales acknowledged that Moton would be “out for a while” after the contest.
It was just Moton’s second game since returning from a serious blood clot issue. He was hurt when teammate Rasheed Walker, the left tackle, fell across the back of his legs in the opening minute of the third quarter.
Moton held his left leg and punched the turf while waiting for trainers to come on the field.
“It was the fibula. There is a fracture there,” Canales told reporters. “We’ll have to get the full run-up to be able to give you the extent of the whole thing.
“But it was just sick for ‘T-Mo.’ Working his way back, getting out there. Just kinda an end-of-the-play thing, guys just rolled up on him unexpectedly at that moment.”
Moton, 32, was diagnosed with blood clots in June and was placed on blood thinners. He began the season on the reserve/non-football injury list and was activated ahead of last week’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I feel for T-Mo so much, such a great human being, such a great guy,” quarterback Bryce Young said. “He’s as resilient as they come. He’s going to do everything he can; he’s going to work, and he’ll bounce back from it, but, yeah, just from the human side, I feel for him.”
Sunday marked the 130th NFL start (in 147 career games) for Moton, a second-round draft choice in 2017 out of Western Michigan.
Monroe Freeling, the team’s 2026 first-round draft pick who started the first four games in place of Moten, finished the game at right tackle. Freeling played at Georgia.