Since drafting D.J. Hayden in the first round of the 2013 draft, the Raiders have gotten used to waiting for him to return from surgery.
Right now, they are waiting for Hayden to return from the foot surgery he had to repair a stress fracture before the start of camp. At the time of the operation, it was expected that Hayden would be out for 6-8 weeks as he recovered and it has now been about six weeks since the surgery. Raiders coach Dennis Allen says that Hayden isn’t ready to return yet, but that the expectation is that he will be back before the preseason comes to a close.
“I expect to see him before preseason [ends],” Allen said, via ESPN.com, “but we’ll have to wait and see. He is getting better, but he is not ready to be out here playing football yet.”
Obviously the Raiders would like to get Hayden as much work as they possibly can after his rookie season started and ended late because of injuries, but they may have a tough call to make if he isn’t clearly ready to play in a couple of weeks. Activating him from the active PUP list eliminates the possibility of putting him on the reserve variety in the regular season, which would mean that any setback would leave them with an injured player taking up a roster spot or a longer time out of the lineup after placing him on injured reserve.