How two Duke backups helped QB Daniel Jones return from a shoulder injury so quickly
The quick return of Duke quarterback Daniel Jones from a collarbone injury is due in large part to the ingenuity of a couple of his teammates.
Jones suffered a fractured left collarbone during Duke’s win over Northwestern in Week 2. He returned just three weeks later against Virginia Tech despite needing surgery for the fracture. How did that happen? Well, center Clark Bulleit and linebacker Kevin Gehsmann designed and printed a custom brace for Jones’ shoulder with a 3D printer.
“The training staff helped us to identify pressure points, and took Daniel through his range of motion, telling us where the brace could or could not go,” Bulleit told the Duke Chronicle. “We would determine how to change the shape of the brace to cover the collarbone and retain its integrity while not hitting the pressure points.”
Bulleit had previously spent a semester in Duke’s 3D-printing lab, so he had prior experience playing around with the technology. After nine prototypes and a lot of tweaking in between, the duo was able to find the perfect brace for Jones’ shoulder and the QB returned much quicker than the team had initially anticipated.
Jones has worn the brace on his non-throwing shoulder in each of his first two games back. He’s completed over 60 percent of his passes in each of those two games and has thrown for four touchdowns and two interceptions.
Both Bulleit and Gehsmann are backups and don’t play much; there’s a significant chance the brace will be their biggest contribution to the team’s on-field success in 2018. And given the creativity behind it, that’s pretty awesome.
“[Director of athletic medicine Hap Zarzour] told me that this is the most Duke thing that he has ever heard,” Gehsmann told the Chronicle. “So I asked him if that meant he doesn’t like it, and he responded to me ‘No, it means I love it.’”
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
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