Vikings wide receiver Greg Childs’ first training camp as a professional had barely started when it and his rookie season came to a sudden halt.
Childs tore the patellar tendons in both knees early last August, an injury that raised the possibility that his career would come to a halt as well. Gary Baxter and Wendell Davis never played in another NFL game after suffering the dual knee injuries and Dan Wierderer of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported earlier this month that the Vikings are proceeding as if Childs “may never play a meaningful down.”
Childs, who tore the same tendon in his right knee while in college, isn’t throwing in the towel, though. He’s been working out at the team’s headquarters and progressed to doing some cutting and sprinting among other drills. The 2012 fourth-round pick is not 100 percent healthy, though, and isn’t making any predictions about his fitness for the start of training camp this summer.
“We’re just going to see how I feel when that time comes. I’m not going to put a time limit on it. I ain’t going to put no date and say I’m going to be back midseason or the first of the season,” Childs said, via Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com. “There’s no sense coming back 80, 90 percent. That’s not going to really help the team out. That’s what we’re trying to do right now -- just get me back on the field so I can really help the team.”
The long view is the only one for Childs right now, so the fewer arbitrary deadlines the better for a comeback effort that would beat some pretty long odds.