If it was up to Sydney Brown, he would have been practicing months ago.
That’s just how he’s wired.
Tell him his ACL rehab will take nine months, and he’s thinking he'll be ready in six.
“I would say (the hardest thing) was just being patient,” Brown said. “For me, that was the hardest thing because you want to be out there. Really around the six-month mark, I was ready to be back out on the field. If it was up to me, I'm telling you, I probably would have come back at six months.”
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Brown, the Eagles’ 3rd-round pick last year, tore his right ACL early in the Eagles’ regular-season finale last year against the Giants at MetLife. On Wednesday, after a long, challenging rehab, he returned to practice.
“It's been a long time coming,” he said. “I'm just excited to be back out there. Whatever role they put me at, I'll own it to the best of my ability. I'm just excited to be back with the boys and play football again.
“This is what I do. This is what I get paid to do. And this is what I love to do. So I'm just trying to really give the offense the best looks I can and just earning my role. Whether it's on safety, it's on special teams, whatever they put me, I'll own it to the best of my ability and dive into it the best I can.”
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Brown only played 16 defensive snaps the first three weeks of his rookie year and then missed three games with a hamstring injury. When he returned, he began playing a lot and playing very well. From Week 7 through Week 17, he averaged 32 defensive snaps per game and made six starts.
His 99-yard pick-6 off Kyler Murray in Week 17 matched the Eagles’ longest INT return since Lito Sheppard’s 102-yarder off Cowboys quarterback Drew Bledsoe in 2006 and was the longest in franchise history by a rookie.
And then, on Jan. 7, disaster struck. On Jan. 25, he underwent surgery to repair his torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Brown had an unflinchingly positive approach to his rehab. Never felt sorry for himself. Never got down on himself. Never asked, "Why me?"
He attacked his rehab the same way he attacks everything. With a big smile and a healthy dose of positivity. He estimates he took over 1,000 phantom reps on the field during training camp practices – day after day, snap after snap, he would stand 20 feet behind the secondary on the field and mentally and physically go through the rep while remaining an officially non-participant.
“This is really my first long-term injury,” he said. “I'm a big believer in positive energy, that positive attitudes bring positive outcomes. So I just told myself every single day that I was gonna bring it, even on the hard days.
“But having Jerome (Reid, trainer) with me every single day – even when I didn't feel like doing something - he's pushing me to do everything to the best of my ability. I just had great people around me.
“With anything in life, I think if you do have a positive attitude, you will have positive outcomes. I think that's exactly why I dominated this entire process.”
Kelee Ringo was drafted one round after Brown last year, played alongside Brown late last season and he’s had an up-close-and-personal vantagepoint of Brown’s lengthy rehab.
“Sydney has a motor like no other that I've seen before,” Ringo said. “Being hurt and going through this time and just not being able to be out there with us, of course, it's going to eat him alive a little bit, but he’s really attacked his rehab.
“He’ll 100 percent be ready when he gets his opportunity. When his opportunity does come, he's going to make the most of it.”
When will that be?
Not surprisingly, if it were up to Brown, he’d play Sunday against the Browns. The Eagles opened his practice window Wednesday, and they still haven’t activated him, although it’s interesting to note they haven’t filled the roster spot that opened up when they released Devin White.
The only remaining question is in what role?
Reed Blankenship and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson are now the starting safeties, and Cooper DeJean appears earmarked to take over for Avonte Maddox in the slot.
No question Brown will help out immediately on special teams, but he’s too talented to not have a role on defense.
“I've shown everything that I can, I've done everything to the best of my ability, we've absolutely dominated this process, myself and the (training) team in there,” Brown said at his locker Thursday. “I don't think they'd put me in this position to return if I wasn't ready.
“So I'm mentally there, I'm physically there and I'm just ready to get back on the field. … I'm just pumped, I'm stoked to be back out there.”
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