T.J. Hockenson 'well ahead' of schedule, not yet ruled out for Week 1

The star tight end is a little more than seven months removed from a torn ACL.

T.J. Hockenson / Image courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

T.J. Hockenson sprinting on the side fields at TCO Performance Center during Vikings training camp has led to speculation that the star tight end's recovery from the torn ACL he suffered last Christmas is ahead of schedule. Well, on Friday we found out that Hockenson is ahead of schedule.

"Every time I see him working on the side field it becomes awful tempting to corner [head trainer Tyler Williams] somewhere in the building and demand answers on when we'll be able to stat implementing him maybe off the [physically unable to perform list] and get him a little bit of work," head coach Kevin O'Connell quipped Friday. "Whether it's just simply individual, some routes on air, start getting him some timing with our quarterbacks."

That's encouraging information from the coach, but there's a but...

"But," O'Connell continued, "where he's at, albeit very well ahead of maybe where some of the medical folks thought he would be, there is an injury there that a timeline exists and we're going to try to stay true to that while also giving him ops to push to maybe shrink that timeline a little bit."

Is O'Connell ready to start thinking about Hockenson playing in the opener Sept. 8 against the Giants?

No, not yet," O'Connell said.

No as in Hockenson won't play in Week 1 or no as in he's just not ready to talk about that possiblity?

"No, I don't think it would be responsible at this point with where he's at in his rehab to start even me personally thinking about are we going to have him or are we not," O'Connell replied. "I want him focusing on what he can control, which is what he's done an unbelievable job of so far which is his daily mission of just attacking this thing one day at a time."

After all of that, what have we learned? Hockenson is well ahead of schedule seven months after the Dec. 24 injury and the door on him playing in the season opener hasn't officially been closed.

The Sept. 8 opener is just over six weeks away. If Hockenson does play in the opener, his time between games since the injury would be 259 days. Coincidentally, Vikings legend Adrian Peterson torn his ACL on Dec. 24, 2011 and played in Minnesota's 2012 season opener 260 days and went on to rush for 2,097 yards and win the MVP award.