Bye week allows two vets to deal with injuries

November 2, 2010 5:14 PM by Dan Kolko View Comments

Injuries are going to happen in the NFL, and if they do, you want them to happen leading into a bye week.

That was the message delivered by tight end Todd Heap and wide receiver Derrick Mason after both used their time off during the bye week to deal with various bumps and bruises.

Heap said that his neck and shoulder are feeling much better after spending his days off getting some specialized treatment. The 10-year veteran first suffered a shoulder stinger two games ago against the Patriots, and aggravated the injury against the Bills leading into the bye.

"It's feeling a lot better," Heap said. "Got a lot of rest. Continuing to get treatment, continuing to get everything worked out, but I'm feeling good right now, and I expect to be ready to go [Sunday]."

"Yeah, [it was] good timing. You never want to have any injury to battle during the season. But if you do it's a good time for a bye week."

As for Mason, the veteran wide receiver had surgery during the bye week to put a pin in the broken pinky finger on his right hand. Mason has been playing with the broken finger for the last two games, but with the extra time during the bye, he was able to get the surgery done and doesn't anticipate missing any playing time.

"Hopefully it'll be good for Sunday - I know it will - but if not we'll just tape it up and go," Mason said. "It was something I needed. I couldn't go the whole season without it. I played two games with it, so I figured the best time to get it fixed now was the bye week so I could get some extra days to rest and allow the swelling to go down.

"I caught a few balls [during practice on Monday]. I've got to adjust to it, but I've caught a few balls here and there. By Sunday I'll be fine. Hopefully the swelling will go down a little bit more and I'll be able to go out there and be my old self and catch footballs."