https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNelWj9xFdM&pp=ygUWamVycnkgcmljZSAxOTk3IGluanVyeQ%3D%3D
Aaron Rodgers is going through something similar to this. Suffered a devastating Achilles injury that would take several months to heal and is gonna beat every single odds and try to come back very late into the season.
Rice tore his ACL in week 1 and returned in Week 16 and managed to catch a TD pass but broke the patella in the same knee and missed the rest of the season/playoffs as a result.
The patella is a bone. Breaking his patella has nothing to do with weakening of the quads. Now if he tore his patella tendon, then you got a case.