I have a bone bruise in my knee. The doc thought it was a torn patella tendon until MRI got back, because my knee slightly hyperextended. I just got lucky and nothing got shredded. It has taken about six months to get back to almost normal. It was terrifyingly unstable for a couple of months. I can't imagine trying to play ball on it. I'm just now getting to where I'm comfortable playing hoops or anything with change of direction. The thing with it is, you can't really rehab it. So, if it was a bone bruise, we can assume that an NFL bone bruise was exponentially worse than mine. Sure, treatment options are better, but it's a super weird injury, and I can actually believe they might shut him down in an obviously lost season, cause it's an injury that is always in your head, and as soon as it starts feeling better, you're just walking along and your knee seizes up or buckles. Imagine trying to hit an NFL line with that going on.

I'm not saying you're wrong. You're probably right. However, the bone bruise theory is somewhat plausible.