In an interview with Chiefs.com, new Kansas City head coach Romeo Crennel indicated that he didn't want to rush Jamaal Charles' return to the field after the star RB tore his ACL early in the 2011 season:
"You don't want him coming back too soon and then reinjuring himself," Crennel said from the NFL Annual Meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. "You talk to them about that, you have the trainer talk about it, his physician has to talk about it because when they do start feeling good, they want to do more."
"Jamaal stopped by the office recently," Crennel said. "He came in for a check-up and he stopped by the office and I had a chance to talk to him and he was saying that his knee is doing well. He is running straight ahead, so he is making good progress."
For Charles, a RB who used elite speed to become one of the NFL's rising stars, recovery is even trickier, as he will need to be 100% in his leg to regain the form that let him rush for 3,027 career yards on 6.1 yards a carry.
More importantly, he'll need to have full confidence in his recovery to rush confidently through traffic, especially since defenders will likely test the stability of his knee in the middle of piles.
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