I think Thomas is still feeling the effect of the ACL surgery. No matter what people say most players not named Adrian Peterson take 2 years to fully recover. Look at Tyrann Mathieu; it's only this year he's getting his honey badger back.
you are probably right, i was talking to my ceo the other day and he was telling me guys are coming back faster because of the new rehab, where they cut the blood off from the ACL and then release it, so that the sudden impact of blood helps the healing. I dont know if thats true, im no doctor.
I think the jury is still very much out on Steele. The defense has looked pretty good in the first half of each game. Has the slippage in the second half been caused by offenses figuring out his defense or lack of defensive adjustments or is it defensive fatigue from lack of depth? They have looked pretty tired in the 2nd half and the pass rush goes from good to gone. I don't think we'll have a great defense this season and it will probably hurt us in a game or two. However I'm not ready to say Steele isn't capable of getting the job done even though I wasn't thrilled when he was hired.
ACL's don't heal, they are replaced. The healing that is needed is the bone graft and if it was an autograft the place where it was taken which is usually the patella tendon. I would imagine that 99.9 percent of athletes looking for a quick recovery do not go with the autograft and use donor tissue instead.
Also the muscles and other critical parts atrophy and regaining strength, control and confidence is also part of recovery. Regardless it seems to take more than a year to regain the form one had before the injury.
No doubt, the surgery and the rehab have advanced greatly. It also helps that these guys are elite athletes. It took me a year to have full confidence in my ACL back in '87 and it was a good 2 years before it was 100%.
I had two ACL surgeries and never regained what I lost, but surgery has advanced a ton since then. Atrophy is also not as big of a deal as it was years ago because patients are up walking the day of surgery. In the 80's, it was standard to take 10 weeks on crutches, and atrophy was significant.
