It’s been more than 10 months since Jets receiver Santonio Holmes suffered a Lisfranc injury that ended his 2012 season, and Holmes is reportedly telling people that it may be another couple months before he’s ready to return. Now questions are being raised about what’s taking Holmes so long to get back on the field.
Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com reports that people close to the organization don’t know what to believe, raising the question of whether he’s milking the injury.
The structure of Holmes’s contract makes it a near certainty that he will be released after the 2013 season and become an unrestricted free agent in 2014, and that means Holmes may be thinking more about being healthy when he hits free agency than he’s thinking about helping the Jets win this year. Cimini reports that some people think Holmes is “dragging it out to avoid training camp,” and that Holmes was “seemingly playing to the crowd” as he walked across the practice field gingerly in front of fans at training camp.
Of course, the reality is that only Holmes knows how his foot feels, and if he’s still in pain and doesn’t think he’s 100 percent, it’s reasonable for him to take it slowly until he’s back to 100 percent. But teams want their players on the field, and Holmes’s prolonged absence is starting to raise questions.