Is Graham Mertz playing today vs Florida State? Florida QB's status explored

Quarterback Graham Mertz spent the first four seasons of his college career playing for the Wisconsin Badgers. Then, prior to the start of this season, Mertz transferred to Florida, where he was named as the starting QB upon his arrival.

Since the beginning of the 2023 campaign, he has been one of the most consistent performers for the Gators on the field. However, during last weekend's game against the Missouri Tigers, Mertz was sidelined following a shoulder injury to his throwing arm.

So what is his status ahead of the highly anticipated rivalry game against Florida State and will Mertz be playing against the undefeated Seminoles?

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Is Graham Mertz playing today?

Unfortunately, the Florida Gators will be without Graham Mertz during their game against Florida State. He suffered from a nondisplaced fracture of his collarbone during the game against Missouri and is expected to miss a few weeks of football.

According to coach Billy Napier, the team will wait for around two weeks to assess Mertz's fracture and see if it heals before making decisions on whether the quarterback will need surgery.

He told reporters:

"We took another image yesterday and felt good about that image. You know, we're basically gonna go on a two-week period here where we're going to give a chance for the fracture to start growing back, and then we'll re-evaluate things.

"In the meantime, we're going to do exhaustive research on like cases in college football and the National Football League relative to players that have been through similar injuries, just making sure we're giving him the best map for him going forward through the rest of his career."

Prior to his injury against Mizzou, Graham Mertz put up a decent performance recording 183 passing yards and two TD passes. This brought his overall record for his debut campaign to 2,903 passing yards and 20 TD passes.

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What happened to Graham Mertz?

During the third quarter of the week 12 contest, Graham Mertz was making a rushing play between two defenders on third-and-five. While he was successful in converting a first down, Mertz took two heavy hits to his shoulder.

He remained on the field to play the next snap but after a handoff to Montrell Johnson Jr., the quarterback signaled to the sideline and fell to the ground. Mertz was then immediately rushed off the field to Missouri's facilities for an X-ray to assess his condition. He returned in casual clothes and a sling around his arm, while backup QB Max Brown took over for the rest of the game.