Fewell still waiting for Kenny Phillips' leap

At the start of training camp, Perry Fewell said he was looking forward to seeing safety Kenny Phillips “take a quantum leap” after making his way back from knee surgery a year ago.

But the defensive coordinator said he hasn’t seen that leap yet.

“Not the leaps that I wanted to see,” Fewell told reporters on Thursday. “I am hoping that he will grow and continue to grow for us but I looked for more than what we saw in the preseason.”

Fewell did say that he hasn’t completely put Phillips in positions to do all the things he would like to see so far.

“I didn’t always put him in those positions to see those things and maybe I was a little bit reluctant to say, ‘Well here, do this’ and he will just do that,” Fewell said. “Sometimes you just have to put the player there and get what you really want so that is probably a little bit on him and a little bit on me.”

Phillips is almost two years removed from the knee surgery he had in 2009 and the hope is he will begin to return to the form he displayed prior to the surgery this season.

“I’m looking for him to take a quantum leap,” Fewell had said on Aug. 1. “After coming off his injury and playing in the 2010 season, as a coach, I will admit that I protected him a little bit. I wanted Kenny to be on the field, I wanted him to play for us. Football is a violent game and I tried to minimize the collisions that he encountered last year. He is ready for that bigger role as we have talked. I am looking for big things.”

Click here to order Kenny Phillips’ proCane Rookie Card.


(espn.com)