An injury to defensive tackle Aaron Crawford is a big for UNC’s defensive line in 2018.

One of the strengths of North Carolina’s football team in 2018 was supposed to be the defensive line as the Tar Heels have a lot of talent and depth.

Even with Tomon Fox and Malik Carney missing four games each due to a suspension, UNC’s line was still expected to be pro be very productive. But on Thursday, some news broke that may hinder expectations for a bit.

Inside Carolina’s Greg Barnes is reporting that defensive tackle Aaron Crawford suffered a knee injury during Tuesday’s practice and will be out for some time.

Sources told IC’s Barnes that Crawford will be sidelined for an estimated four weeks to recover from the knee injury. The news is a big for UNC’s defensive line as Crawford was one of the center points on the unit.

The junior has started 22 games for the Tar Heels in his previous two seasons and really had an impact in 2017. Crawford had six quarterback hurries, five tackles for a loss, and three sacks to go with his 29 tackles as a sophomore for the Tar Heels last year.

The nose tackle will miss the season-opener against Cal, a road game at ECU, and a home game against UCF. The Pitt game in Chapel Hill will mark five weeks for the injury, so that’s likely the earliest Crawford could return. Still, UNC will now have to play and plug players on the defensive line as they will miss at least one player from the unit for the first eight weeks.

In addition to the Crawford injury, IC is reporting that defensive tackle Jalen Dalton has missed all of training camp after undergoing offseason surgery. The senior hasn’t been at practice and there’s no timetable for his return.

This will be something to monitor moving forward and we will get our first look at the new defensive line on Sept. 1 when UNC travels to take on Cal.

For more on Crawford’s injury and the latest on the UNC football program, please check back with Keeping It Heel.