The full statement from Rick Burkholder, in case you haven't read the whole thing, on Josh Simmons: "On August 17, Josh came to me with calf discomfort and feeling that he couldn’t post on a single leg in training camp practices. This was the same leg that he had knee surgery on in 2024. He was evaluated by our physicians, who thankfully suspected a low back injury instead of a lower leg or knee ailment. So we obtained an MRI in St. Joe that confirmed that he had a bulging herniated disc in his lumbar spine. "That disc problem was higher up than what we normally see in our offensive linemen, which complicated the case. We recommended a second opinion, as we always do with all of our injured guys, and through his agent and Josh, they selected a spine specialist in California that we have used previously and that is really well known in the NFL. "He went there, was evaluated, and the recommendation was to do rehabilitation and not surgery, with the intent that we would do an MRI in the near future to see what that disc looked like. So Josh continued to progress, and the repeat MRI a few weeks later showed that the disc had improved, so no surgery was recommended, and rehab would continue. "Throughout this process, we’ve had frequent communication with the second opinion, with Josh, with our doctors, and with his agent. Josh worked his tail off. He worked diligently with my staff every day and has improved to the point that where he returned to practice in a limited capacity last week. However, we feel that he’s plateaued in the rehab process as he’s trying to get to the final steps of recovery with return to competition, and he’s just not there yet. After discussion with Josh yesterday, we gave him some time to talk to his family and representatives to investigate next steps as he goes through this process, and that’s why he was listed yesterday as both personal and with the back injury. He took the day off to get with his people. "It was decided and agreed upon by everybody — his people, his agent, him, myself, Andy, Veach — that he should be placed on IR to give him more time to return to full function. He’ll continue with the rehab process with the goal of returning to play at the high level that he achieved in the past. I give a lot of credit to Josh, my docs, my physicians, and my staff — I just give them a ton of credit for navigating through this injury to the point where surgery is not recommended, and that he just needs more time to return to full function. I hope that sheds some light on the situation, and I appreciate you guys always."