One of the big concerns associated with the Detroit Lions' decision to spend a second-round pick on Oklahoma wide receiver Ryan Broyles is the fact that he tore his ACL last November. While Broyles has reportedly been making good progress in his recovery, this type of injury takes time to recover from and time to get back to full strength.
Broyles said on Saturday when he was introduced by the Lions that he is planning to pace himself in his recovery, but he does expect to be ready for training camp. This, obviously, is good news. Training camp is very valuable for rookies who are not only getting used to the NFL, but also learning the playbook and getting on the same page as their teammates. Here's more from Broyles (via MLive):
"Injuries are a part of football," Broyles said. "That happens. It happened my senior year. Nothing I wanted to happen. I feel like I'm bouncing back, and so are these coaches. The coaching staff and organization believe in me and my production at the college level. They expect me to do the same things in the NFL."
Martin Mayhew categorized Broyles as a "possible PUP guy," but Mayhew expects Broyles to be ready to go "at some point during camp." As many have pointed out, Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew tore his ACL on Thanksgiving back in 2009 and spent all of one day on the PUP list during training camp the following offseason. He has started every game in the two seasons since then, so let's hope Broyles has a similar recovery and all questions about his injury are silenced by the time training camp gets rolling.
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