Demar Dotson suffers apparent knee injury against Vikings

Update: According to Vikings beat writer Tom Pelissero, Dotson is believed to have a sprained MCL and "maybe more", will get an MRI to determine the full extent of the damage to his knee. "Sprained" sounds mild, but could describe a serious tear, too. Luke Easterling adds that he may have torn his ACL as well, which would knock him out for the season and possibly longer.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers suffered what appears to be their first truly serious injury of the year: Demar Dotson had to be carted off the field with what looked like a left knee injury.

That's terrible for Dotson, who had been having contract talks with the Buccaneers. If the injury is more serious than a sprain, he can probably forget about those going through -- which is awful, because he's been stuck with a bad quarterback for years now and would definitely deserve a new one.

This is also terrible news for the Bucs, who have no quality replacement for their best lineman. Patrick Omameh is listed behind Dotson on the depth chart, but he's not good enough to start. The team could turn to Kevin Pamphile, who showed some promise at left tackle last season but struggled on the right -- or they could move Pamphile to the left and put Donovan Smith on the right side. Kadeem Edwards and Garrett Gilkey might have a long shot at competing for a starting job there, too.

None of those options should be appealing, though, and Dotson's loss could cripple this offensive line, especially against the pass. And if Jameis Winston has to run for his life on every dropback, this is not going to be a fun season.