The career of Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert has been plagued by injuries, and the injury that ended his 2016 season may affect him into 2017 as well.
Eifert, whose season was cut short by a back injury, had offseason surgery and isn’t sure if he’ll be healthy enough to participate when the Bengals open training camp in three months.
“I don’t know,” Eifert said, via Katherine Terrell of ESPN. “I’ll have to see how I’m feeling and go from there.”
Eifert was in the same situation last year, when a Pro Bowl ankle injury lingered and left him wondering when he’d be ready to go for the regular season. As it turned out, he missed the first six games. This year, Eifert is confident he’ll get to 100 percent eventually, but it might be a while.
“I’ve still lost a lot of strength with the nerve issues and all of that stuff. Just working through some of that. Once I get my strength back I’ll be fine,” he said.
That’s not a great situation for a player to be in, but at this point all the Bengals and Eifert can do is wait and hope that if he’s not ready for July, he’s at least ready for September.