Chris Thompson Talks About His Back and ACL Injuries

Holden and Danny asked about his scary back injury and Thompson was straight-forward on the details, which he has been for some time. The hit came in a 2011 loss to Wake Forest that resulted in the T-5 and T-6 vertebrae breaking in Thompson's back. He had a back injury in high school as well. ESPN has video of the injury and a rehab special with him.

It was 3^rd and 1 and I was only thinking about getting the first down... A defender was just standing in my way. I tried to run through him a little bit but it felt like I hit a brick wall. From there like I couldn't move. My whole body just completely stopped and I fell over. For a good 2-3 minutes I couldn't breathe. I was grasping air. Some of the worst pain I ever felt in my life. I knew I wasn't paralyzed though because I made sure I could feel legs and toes moving. I couldn't breathe. That was pretty much the worst part of it. For a couple months I wasn't sure if wanted to continue to play football. I'm glad I did though.

On the recovery and knowing when he was back...

It took me until July and it wasn't even at practice or anything. Just an off-season workout. I woke up early to run with all the incoming freshman. We had some track stars that came in and I was able to keep up and that was my first time ever really fully sprinting. I was like I'm ready to go. For some odd reason, even the thought of getting hit was out of my mind after I realized I was fast enough to start back playing again and playing better than I was.

And then tearing his ACL in October of 2012...

It was tough. I was about to be the first 1000 yard runner since Warrick Dunn. Averaging 7.5 yards a carry...that's a lot of yards. When it happened, it didn't don on me at first. I was walking in the locker room around afterwards. They'd see me next week. Coach Fisher told me the news. I took a little time to sit and think. What did I do wrong? I'm in the church seriously. My Mom kept me in the church since I was little boy. What was I doing wrong? Making bad decisions or what? After awhile I just realized I need to refocus myself. I don't know why but that it happened for reason. I'm so glad the Redskins organization just overlooked the knee and after awhile I'll be back. I'm thankful I got drafted.

On playing under Mike Shanahan system as a RB...

When he called me I didn't believe it was real! That great offense!

Hopefully I can do everything to get on the field and change the pace a bit. Be able to possibly do a lot a lot read options with RGIII actually pitching it instead of keeping it to take some hits off him. Hopefully it will be a really great thing for us.

Thompson has worked with many professionals in his rehab and preparation for the pros. For a 5th round pick, the risk reward seems to be a long-shot, but the qualities this kids bring certainly seem to fit the next set of wrinkles the Shanahans plan to employ.

For more info on that, check out UKRedskin's film breakdown of Chris Thompson. RGIII and the Pitch....coming to D.C. field near you in September 2013.