Cardinals Greg Toler ‘taking it one day at a time’
May 29, 2012, 8:50 PM | Updated: May 30, 2012, 7:00 am
Greg Toler puts himself at about 85-percent.
Not bad considering he’s nine months removed from tearing
the ACL in his left knee and there are still two months
before the start of training camp.
Toler, who suffered the season-ending injury in the
Cardinals third preseason game against the San Diego
Chargers, was on the field last week for the start of
OTAs. This week he’s added to his workload with additional
reps.
“We’re not trying to be ready for OTAs,” he said Tuesday.
“We’re looking towards September and training camp.”
Toler, about to enter his fourth NFL season as one of the
club’s top cornerbacks, has impressed the coaching staff
thus far.
“We’re very pleased with his progress,” said defensive
backs coach Louie Cioffi. “Everything we’ve asked him to
do he’s passed with flying colors.
“As you can see [Tuesday], he was running deep with the
guys again. He made a nice play on the ball (to Larry
Fitzgerald) down the field. We’re very happy with where he
is right now.”
Toler admits he’s still experiencing some soreness with
the knee, especially on days when he increases his rehab;
but so far, no pain.
“[The knee] feels pretty good,” he said. “Just taking it
one day at a time. This brace is kind of hard getting used
to. I try to ignore it and just work on my technique and
learn the playbook.”
The brace will be on “until they tell me I can take it
off,” which may not be until training camp.
“When I try to go top-end speed, coming out of my break
[the brace] kind of limits me from kicking heal-toe-heal-
toe. I just got to work through that. It makes me stay
technique sound because I don’t have my full range without
the brace yet.”
Even with the brace on Toler is making noise, trying to
return to the player he was in 2010 when he started 13 of
16 games at right cornerback.
“It’s hard to not give him more (reps) after what we saw
him do last week but he’s on a pretty strict play count,”
explained head coach Ken Whisenhunt.
“We’re obviously focusing more on making sure he’s ready
to go in training camp. But I’m really impressed with what
I’ve seen him do in practice. He looks good.”
