One thing we all learn to be cautious about is timelines for surgeries. Players are always either ahead of schedule, behind schedule, though rarely on schedule. Who knows? Probably the best way to do it is to understand why a guy is where he is. For instance, some teams view six or so months to return from an ACL tear to be a reach. When Patriots WR Wes Welker tore his knee up on Jan. 3 a few years back, he was essentially ready for training camp. That was seven months. But it was actually six months from surgery, since he waited an entire month for swelling to go down. What does this mean for Vikings RB Adrian Peterson?
Peterson tore his on Dec. 24, then had surgery five days later. No wait. So, his clock actually started a month before Welker’s when you compare timelines. Welker was on the field six months after surgery, but he started to look like himself after eight months. For Peterson, without complications, that would put him on the field in early July (before the camp) and have him feeling like himself in early September. That’s why he may not start the year on the PUP list. “I think it sped up my timetable,” Peterson told me, about not waiting for surgery. “My first thought was, ‘Hey, I want to get the surgery done as fast as possible to go ahead and start this process. Get it going. I haven’t had any setbacks.”
