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http://www.detroitlions.com/document_displ...ument_id=460495
Jones Returns to Practice
As the Regular Season Begins, RB Kevin Jones Makes his Official Return to Full-Team Practice
By Chrissie Wywrot
Detroitlions.com
September 3, 2007
Jones has been working out throughout training camp and the preseason.
ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- It didn’t take long for people to count out the quick return of running back Kevin Jones.
After he suffered a Lisfranc injury – a particularly painful and difficult injury to come back from – to his left foot last December 10, many were doubtful he would be ready to start the following season. In fact, even Jones himself had doubts.
“When I first (got injured), I didn’t have a positive outlook on it,” he said. “I was discouraged at first, but once I started walking around and moving around, months later I felt I could be back.”
It was easy to see that once he started moving around on his injured foot he was making more and more progress. He steadily progressed from walking on a treadmill and running in the workout pool to running on a treadmill to running on the football field to running and cutting on the football field.
Then this past Thursday, Jones was checked out by the doctor who performed the surgery – Dr. Bob Anderson – to gauge his progress and help determine if he would have to start the year on the Reserved/Physically Unable to Perform list.
The results of that check-up not only helped the Detroit Lions make their final decision to start him on the active roster, they helped Jones build more peace of mind about himself physically as he moves forward into the regular season.
“After I talked to the doctor it gave me more confidence mentally about my foot; he said everything is healed,” said Jones. “I saw the X-Rays and all the tests that we took when we went down there, so it just gave me more confidence letting me know that I can go a little harder. Even though I’ve been going hard (now) I can push it to the limit.”
Jones has been diligently fighting to get back on the football field since suffering his injury last year. It has been rollercoaster of a struggle for the fourth-year running back, which has had him back and forth from doubtful to confident numerous times during any given day.
Despite his competitive nature urging him to get back on the football field as soon as possible, Jones didn’t want to make a hasty decision regarding what he could or couldn’t do physically.
“I could have said ‘no-go,’” he said. “If I didn’t feel well, I probably wouldn’t be going (to the active roster). I told them I felt good, I’ve been telling them I felt good. The doctor reassured that everything was healed up. That gave them a little more confidence to take me off the PUP.”
On Thursday evening after talking over Anderson’s results, Head Coach Rod Marinelli and President & CEO Matt Millen wanted Jones to think the decision over before coming to the final conclusion of whether he thought he was ready.
Jones talked everything over with his family before deciding he was ready to take that next step.
“They wanted to be smart about it because I have a future in the NFL,” said Jones. “They don’t want me to risk having something devastating happen and then not being able to play. (I spoke) with my wife, my mom and my dad; of course the women were more apprehensive than the men, but I just talked to them and let them know what the doctor said.
“I showed them some pictures of my foot; the injury has healed up for the most part, so I’m just ready to get out there. That’s how the conversation went. Basically, I just told them I was good and they gave me the okay.”
Though Jones is technically on the active roster, he will be experiencing what Marinelli has dubbed a “padded PUP,” meaning the Lions will hold him out of games for as long as they feel they have to but – at the same time – he will have the liberty of practicing with the team.
He will start off slow for now, re-acclimating himself to practicing in pads and teaching himself how to play without overcompensating for his injured foot.
“Usually when you hurt a certain part of your body, you compensate and then you wind up hurting something else,” said Jones. “I was mentally prepared for that through the whole process. Sometimes another part of my foot would hurt that wasn’t even injured. I just try to work hard and walk on it more, running on it more, stuff like that. That was a concern, but hopefully I’ll be fine from that.”
There may have been a day over these past eight months when Jones would have been pushing to get back for this week’s season opener, but he has learned patience. He doesn’t want to overdo it – even with games like Philadelphia looming in the near future.
“Yeah, that’s my hometown of course,” he said. “I want to play every game – I want to play in the first game – but I don’t know where I’m at physically. As far as with pads on, banging around, I don’t know how my foot is going to react. Now I get to test it at practice.”
Jones’ workload will begin as a member of the scout team.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “I just need the ball in my hands and I need some defenders out there. I don’t care if I took all of (the media) out there and put pads on you. That’s good for me; I just need the ball and to be able to move around with some guys out there.”
Jones Returns to Practice
As the Regular Season Begins, RB Kevin Jones Makes his Official Return to Full-Team Practice
By Chrissie Wywrot
Detroitlions.com
September 3, 2007
Jones has been working out throughout training camp and the preseason.
ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- It didn’t take long for people to count out the quick return of running back Kevin Jones.
After he suffered a Lisfranc injury – a particularly painful and difficult injury to come back from – to his left foot last December 10, many were doubtful he would be ready to start the following season. In fact, even Jones himself had doubts.
“When I first (got injured), I didn’t have a positive outlook on it,” he said. “I was discouraged at first, but once I started walking around and moving around, months later I felt I could be back.”
It was easy to see that once he started moving around on his injured foot he was making more and more progress. He steadily progressed from walking on a treadmill and running in the workout pool to running on a treadmill to running on the football field to running and cutting on the football field.
Then this past Thursday, Jones was checked out by the doctor who performed the surgery – Dr. Bob Anderson – to gauge his progress and help determine if he would have to start the year on the Reserved/Physically Unable to Perform list.
The results of that check-up not only helped the Detroit Lions make their final decision to start him on the active roster, they helped Jones build more peace of mind about himself physically as he moves forward into the regular season.
“After I talked to the doctor it gave me more confidence mentally about my foot; he said everything is healed,” said Jones. “I saw the X-Rays and all the tests that we took when we went down there, so it just gave me more confidence letting me know that I can go a little harder. Even though I’ve been going hard (now) I can push it to the limit.”
Jones has been diligently fighting to get back on the football field since suffering his injury last year. It has been rollercoaster of a struggle for the fourth-year running back, which has had him back and forth from doubtful to confident numerous times during any given day.
Despite his competitive nature urging him to get back on the football field as soon as possible, Jones didn’t want to make a hasty decision regarding what he could or couldn’t do physically.
“I could have said ‘no-go,’” he said. “If I didn’t feel well, I probably wouldn’t be going (to the active roster). I told them I felt good, I’ve been telling them I felt good. The doctor reassured that everything was healed up. That gave them a little more confidence to take me off the PUP.”
On Thursday evening after talking over Anderson’s results, Head Coach Rod Marinelli and President & CEO Matt Millen wanted Jones to think the decision over before coming to the final conclusion of whether he thought he was ready.
Jones talked everything over with his family before deciding he was ready to take that next step.
“They wanted to be smart about it because I have a future in the NFL,” said Jones. “They don’t want me to risk having something devastating happen and then not being able to play. (I spoke) with my wife, my mom and my dad; of course the women were more apprehensive than the men, but I just talked to them and let them know what the doctor said.
“I showed them some pictures of my foot; the injury has healed up for the most part, so I’m just ready to get out there. That’s how the conversation went. Basically, I just told them I was good and they gave me the okay.”
Though Jones is technically on the active roster, he will be experiencing what Marinelli has dubbed a “padded PUP,” meaning the Lions will hold him out of games for as long as they feel they have to but – at the same time – he will have the liberty of practicing with the team.
He will start off slow for now, re-acclimating himself to practicing in pads and teaching himself how to play without overcompensating for his injured foot.
“Usually when you hurt a certain part of your body, you compensate and then you wind up hurting something else,” said Jones. “I was mentally prepared for that through the whole process. Sometimes another part of my foot would hurt that wasn’t even injured. I just try to work hard and walk on it more, running on it more, stuff like that. That was a concern, but hopefully I’ll be fine from that.”
There may have been a day over these past eight months when Jones would have been pushing to get back for this week’s season opener, but he has learned patience. He doesn’t want to overdo it – even with games like Philadelphia looming in the near future.
“Yeah, that’s my hometown of course,” he said. “I want to play every game – I want to play in the first game – but I don’t know where I’m at physically. As far as with pads on, banging around, I don’t know how my foot is going to react. Now I get to test it at practice.”
Jones’ workload will begin as a member of the scout team.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “I just need the ball in my hands and I need some defenders out there. I don’t care if I took all of (the media) out there and put pads on you. That’s good for me; I just need the ball and to be able to move around with some guys out there.”
KJ will end up being this season's biggest bargain. I got him for $1 in my 10-team auction redraft league, and I suspect everyone else who took a chance on him this season got him similarly cheap. If he's back by game 3 as suggested above (or even a few games later), and performs well enough to occupy a RB#4 sopt on your roster, we all made out like bandits. If he starts putting up '06-like numbers by the last 1/3 of the season, we then have stuff that fantasy legends are made of (especially in auction keeper leagues where he can be kept for $11 or less next season).
KJ will end up being this season's biggest bargain. I got him for $1 in my 10-team auction redraft league, and I suspect everyone else who took a chance on him this season got him similarly cheap. If he's back by game 3 as suggested above (or even a few games later), and performs well enough to occupy a RB#4 sopt on your roster, we all made out like bandits. If he starts putting up '06-like numbers by the last 1/3 of the season, we then have stuff that fantasy legends are made of (especially in auction keeper leagues where he can be kept for $11 or less next season).
