VIDEO: T.J. Hockenson’s ankle looks pretty good

A few weeks ago, Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell raised some eyebrows with a passing comment about 2019 first-round pick T.J. Hockenson.

“You can’t say he’s 100 percent yet, but I think he’s well on the way to getting there,” Bevell said. “He’s done a great job with his rehab.”

Hockenson suffered a pretty severe-looking ankle injury way back on November 28, the day of the Thanksgiving Day game against the Chicago Bears. After getting rolled up on, Hockenson was carted off the field and was seen for the rest of the year in a scooter, unable to put any weight on that leg.

To hear that he still wasn’t 100 percent almost seven months later wasn’t completely surprising, but it may have been a wake-up call to those expecting Hockenson to just show up and be completely healed at the start of training camp.

This week, however, a video emerged from Hockenson’s Instagram page that showed he may be closer than Bevell was suggesting. Take a look:

Bevell did said Hockenson was in the running phase of his rehabilitation, and it appears Hockenson is nearly up to speed with his routes as he continues to work out with former Iowa teammate and current 49ers star George Kittle.

Obviously, it’s one thing to be running routes in shorts without any opposition and a whole different thing being 100 percent ready to strap on pads for training camp. But for those worried a guy like Hockenson may spend the entirety of camp on the PUP list or anything like that, it appears the Lions tight end will be ready to go sooner rather than later.