Carlos Rogers injury update

From the Official Site:

Cornerback Carlos Rogers and linebacker Rocky McIntosh are not expected to participate fully in the May 2-4 mini-camp.

Both are continuing to recover from knee ligament surgery last year...

Rogers is coming off a knee ligament injury suffered in Week 8 last season. He underwent surgery to repair the knee in November.

His availability for training camp and preseason is also uncertain.

Rogers has targeted the 2008 season opener for his return, though. He said in early March that he was "making progress" with his rehab.

I assumed he'd be out much longer than that given the injury, so I'm thrilled to see he has the season opener targeted for return. I remain skeptical of that actually happening, and the story doesn't necessarily lend itself to optimism; players would tend to claim their return as early as possible, but I'd like to hear from some of the coaching or conditioning staff on the matter before I take Rogers' word for it.

That said, if he can be game ready by the season opener? Dude will get huge amounts of respect from me. Furthermore I hate the idea of playing much of next season without one of our best cornerbacks, as I witnessed the epic badness of doing the same circa 2006.

Regarding Rogers generally, this is a huge season for him. Questions remain about whether he's as good as he was drafted (although I think he's a good -- perhaps not yet great -- cornerback). And now he is faced with the biggest adversity of his young career with the knee injury. I'm rooting for him to recover and silent critics. In any event, we're going to learn a lot about Carlos Rogers in 2008. I hope we start learning September 4th.