Tyler Eifert carted off vs. Falcons with gruesome leg injury

Eifert’s season appears to be done. You might not want to watch this one.

Tyler Eifert helped push the Bengals to the top of the AFC North through the first three weeks of the 2018 NFL season, but Cincinnati’s playoff push will likely have to move forward without him. The Pro Bowl tight end was carted off the field Sunday after sustaining an absolutely brutal leg injury that could cost him his season.

Here’s the replay below — but be warned, it is graphic.

Coming back from injury will be a familiar road for the veteran tight end. A series of different maladies had kept him from the field the past two seasons, limiting him to just eight games — and two starts — in 2016 and 2017. But he’d returned to full strength this fall, hauling in 11 catches for 141 yards in his first three games.

Eifert had notched his first touchdown catch in nearly two years two quarters before being taken off the field in the back of a cart. He even finished it off with a throwback Stone Cold Steve Austin celebration.

When healthy, Eifert is the kind of tight end who can elevate the Bengal offense to great heights. He made the Pro Bowl in 2015 behind a 13-touchdown campaign. Not coincidentally, 2015 was also the last year Cincinnati recorded a winning record.

His absence will push C.J. Uzomah back into the starting lineup as the team’s top tight end. Uzomah started the first two games of the season before taking a backseat to a full-strength Eifert in Week 3. He has made six catches for 68 yards and a touchdown so far in 2018.