Reggie Wayne confident he'll return

Reggie Wayne tackled the question at issue as directly as he would have run a go-route.

"Knee is great. Knee is so far, so good. It's moving forward from there," the Indianapolis Colts six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver said Monday while he and his teammates cleaned out their lockers and moved into the offseason.

Wayne tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during the fourth quarter of an Oct. 20 victory over the Denver Broncos. He was placed on the injured reserve list and underwent reconstructive surgery five days later.

He declined Monday to speculate on when he will resume full football activities, but he made it clear he expects to play next season and play at, and even above, the level that has made him a 1,000-yard receiver eight of the past 10 seasons.

"I can tell you that Reggie Wayne, as I'm speaking in the third person, has never lacked confidence," he said. "I'm very, very, very confident I will come back better than I was.

"One thing about this time: It was an opportunity for my body to heal up a little bit so hopefully I stole a year. We'll go from there."

Wayne, 35, has played 196 games over 13 NFL seasons. He has made the best of his forced rest, but he has not taken the injury lying down.

"He beats the trainers here," Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. "I hear it all the time, that he beats those guys into the training room. He's way ahead of schedule in the rehabbing."

Wayne's season didn't end when his knee folded under him Oct. 20 because the Colts season didn't end.

"He told us: 'I'm going to be around. I'm going to be doing my rehab. I'm still going to help you out,' " second-year wide receiver T.Y. Hilton said.

Training room treatment and work in the weight room aside, Wayne has been a constant in coordinator Pep Hamilton's sessions with the offense and in the receivers meeting room, mentoring, tutoring and helping receivers coach Charlie Williams prepare the young receivers tasked with filling the gaping hole left by Wayne's absence.

Hilton, LaVon Brazill, Griff Whalen and Da'Rick Rogers all made progress, some of it remarkable.

Through it all, Wayne maintained his well-established spot in the back of the receivers room, where Hilton sits up front, eager and attentive, if not always in full grasp of the subject.

"Whenever I've got a question, I just look back," said Hilton, who caught 82 passes for 1,083 yards and five touchdowns during the regular season and 17 more for 327 yards and two touchdowns in two playoff games. "He knows I've got a question. We've kind of got that thing going."

Backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has been with four teams through 16 NFL seasons but he has seen few players accorded the respect Wayne quietly commands.

"Coach Pagano, he'll give the team a talk, and he's like, 'Reggie, you got anything?,' " Hasselbeck related. "Or Pep, when Reggie wasn't playing, he was traveling with us to games, and Pep would say, 'Hey, I've asked Reggie to speak tonight, to say a few words.'

"That's happened maybe three times. Rarely do you see someone have that much respect inside a locker room, in the building, really."

Wayne noticed.

"It humbles you. It really does," Wayne said. "A lot of stuff in life, just period, you take for granted but this was a time for me to sit back and appreciate. I was (placed) in a certain role or a different role than I'm used to but it was cool, man, it was fun.

"It didn't end the way we wanted it to. We know we've got a lot of work to do and hopefully next year will be a different outcome."

Wayne ranks eighth in NFL history with 1,006 receptions and 11th with 13,566 receiving yards. He is under contract through next season.


(indystar.com)mainai