Justin Houston's ACL surgery was the bad Kansas City Chiefs injury news on Tuesday. Today we look at the good Chiefs injury news that was also released on Tuesday.
RB Jamaal Charles will be ready for camp
Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder said that Jamaal would be limited in some of the Chiefs early offseason program work this spring - they didn't expect him to be ready for that - but that he will be ready for training camp. Jamaal is a veteran so the offseason work, while it would be nice, is not necessary. It's also his second time coming back from an ACL surgery. I wonder if those stem cells will work. Jamaal wrote about his rehab on his website.
CB Phillip Gaines will be ready for camp too
He's on pretty much the same schedule as Jamaal considering their had ACL surgery a week apart. Derrick Johnson talked about it being nice to have a buddy in Mike DeVito when he recovered from his Achilles injury in 2014. Gaines has a partner in Jamaal. The Chiefs are betting on him being healthy because he has become a key defensive player with Sean Smith's free agency exit.
Tamba on track for training camp
He had offseason surgery to clean out his knee. He did the other knee previously and said it felt great so there's reason to believe this one will help. "He'll be ready to go in July," Burkholder said, "that'll come down to Coach and myself, with some help from our strength coaches to give him some adequate prep work as well as rehab as well as recovery, just like we did last year."
LB Justin March will be ready for offseason program
He had microfracture surgery last August but the Chiefs think he will be ready for the start of the offseason program in April. This is great news because March, an undrafted free agent, really impressed at inside linebacker last summer. He might have a future in the league.
OL Paul Fanaika has passed his physical
He had lower back surgery in September when he was placed on IR. He was expected to be among those competing for a job on the offensive line at either tackle or guard. We kinda forget about him when talking about this year's offensive line but he did sign a three-year deal just a year ago so he very well could factor in this season.
Remember TE James O'Shaughnessy? He'll be back
He had foot surgery in November but he will be back. He was the Chiefs third tight end for a time last season. After he went on IR, Brian Parker emerged as the third tight end. I'll be curious to see how that position battle pans out next season.
Dustin Colquitt has his knee scoped for an old injury
An intrepid AP reader contacted me a few weeks ago to let me know that he saw Dustin Colquitt coming out of a hospital with a brace on his knee, which concerned me. It sounds like he'll be OK with that.
"He has some old injury there," Burkholder said, "he had some hardware in his knee from a high school injury that he had. He had some of that hardware taken out and his knee cleaned out, but he's here every day and he's doing great."