Hitchens watch...

Dallas Cowboys rookie LB Anthony Hitchens has a right high ankle sprain

Brandon George / Reporter

LANDOVER, Md. – The Dallas Cowboys didn’t make it through their regular-season finale Sunday at the Washington Redskins free of injuries. Rookie Anthony Hitchens, who has played as well as any linebacker over the last month, suffered a right high ankle sprain.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said “hopefully” Hitchens’ high ankle sprain isn’t serious. Hitchens will be further evaluated Monday.

Hitchens started at middle linebacker against Washington because Rolando McClain was left at home Saturday because he was running a 102-degree fever.

Hitchens injured his ankle late in the second quarter defending a running play that he was rolled up on by Redskins offensive guard Chris Chester. He was replaced by Cameron Lawrence.

Kyle Wilber started at strong-side linebacker and Bruce Carter started at weak-side linebacker and remained in those spots after Hitchens left the game with his injury.

Sucks ass because he was playing really well.

I hope he heals quickly. You have to figure he will miss the Detroit game but hopefully he can come back at some point prior to the superbowl if we keep winning.

Basically, he's out next week.

Wilber needs to step up I guess.

I hope it's only one week if we make it divisionals.

Fire up the hyperbaric chamber!

It's funny, every player is so much different with these things. Someone like Miles Austin would be out 4-6 weeks. Someone like Dez Bryant or Terrell Owens might miss a game at most.

He ankle sprains can be a bitch. When I saw that his ankle was twisted outward I figured that was what happened.

I like the idea of having McClain, Lee and Hitchens back there. That is a formible group for sure.

We should have McClain back at least. Who woulda thought Hitchens would be so impactful and needed? I think most here were highly critical of the Hitchens pick.

p1_ said:

We should have McClain back at least. Who woulda thought Hitchens would be so impactful and needed? I think most here were highly critical of the Hitchens pick.

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He was a reach based on public information. It wasn't necessarily because he was a bad prospect

I hated the pick, but with Hitchens, Lee & McClain we might have the smartest/most instinctive LB squad in the league.

dallen said:

He was a reach based on public information. It wasn't necessarily because he was a bad prospect

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Which is why everyone hated the pick. This team hasn't earned getting much benefit of the doubt due their drafting in the past. It ended up being a pretty damn good pick though and there is no question our scouting has improved drastically in recent years.

p1_ said:

We should have McClain back at least. Who woulda thought Hitchens would be so impactful and needed? I think most here were highly critical of the Hitchens pick.

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Everyone hated it.

EVERYONE. Except maybe Iowa fans.

Cowboysrock55 said:

Which is why everyone hated the pick. This team hasn't earned getting much benefit of the doubt due their drafting in the past. It ended up being a pretty damn good pick though and there is no question our scouting has improved drastically in recent years.

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I remember the furor well. I posted that I didn't know much about him but I had a c conversation with my friend in Iowa about him and he said he was a very good player. Some folks gave me some flak about it but it did turn out well.

L.T. Fan said:

I remember the furor well. I posted that I didn't know much about him but I had a c conversation with my friend in Iowa about him and he said he was a very good player. Some folks gave me some flak about it but it did turn out well.

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They gave you flak for the "sources" comment. Not that you didn't have legit info. You just got caught in a hostile sources world.

I didn't like the pick because there were other guys that I knew better who I thought would've been good picks, particularly Telvin Smith who played very well this year. However, a month or two ago I went back and looked at some of the past 1st round picks at LB, namely Kuechly and CJ Mosley, and their collegiate production/combine performances were actually quite similar to Hitchens, so it seems that everybody basically just overlooked him and didn't know much about the guy.

Iamtdg said:

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Sounds pretty optimistic .

BipolarFan said:

Everyone hated it.

EVERYONE. Except maybe Iowa fans.

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No, I think they hated it, too.

I remember hearing that he was only the 3rd best LB coming out of Iowa last year.