Falcons rookie defensive end Takkarist McKinley, who's recovering from shoulder surgery, is scheduled to sit out the early days of training camp, according to a Bleacher Report article.
The Falcons are set to report for training camp Wednesday.
The article is a feature on McKinley, who was the darling of the NFL Draft after his emotional appearance on stage. He had shoulder surgery March 3 and likely won’t be immediately cleared at the outset of training camp.
“He subsequently is scheduled to sit out the early days of training camp. No one will be surprised if Takk is back sooner than expected, however,” according to the article written by Dan Pompei.
Then there was this:
"At the community meet and greet, Takk forgot entirely about his shoulder surgery and threw a long pass to a group of kids. The throw did not remind anyone of Matt Ryan, but to those kids, it was the greatest throw of all time."
McKinley played his final two seasons at UCLA with a torn labrum and fractured socket. He played through the injury not realizing the severity of the injury. The defensive end, who was selected with the 26th pick, underwent surgery to repair a torn right labrum and glenoid fracture.
At the combine, McKinley said the recovery was expected to take four to six months. If it healed after four months, that would have been July 4. If six months, he won’t be cleared until Sept. 4.
The Falcons open the regular season against the Chicago Bears on Sept. 10.
The Falcons didn’t give their fan-base clear answers about McKinley’s recovery timeline or if they can expect him on the field at the outset of the season.
Some believe that McKinley is a candidate to start training camp on the Non-Football Injury list, but could be ready to participate during training camp and likely will start his NFL career wearing a right shoulder harness for stability. However, the Falcons felt comfortable about the surgery, but didn’t want to put a firm timetable on his return.
“We didn’t have a problem with that,” Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff said after the draft. “We knew that he was healing well. He’s in a good situation. Our (doctors) are good with it. I understand that anytime you have a situation like that, you need to take care of it. His choice was, along with his representation was that he was going to take care of it.”
