Adrian Peterson’s the best ACL recovery ever? Seahawks’ Jordyn Brooks is back even faster
Jordyn Brooks was humbled.
“Yeah, man,” the Seahawks’ first-round pick three years ago said this week.
“Absolutely.”
He’d taken over for Seahawks legend Bobby Wagner as the team’s middle linebacker and signal-caller. He’d broken Wagner’s Seattle record for tackles in a season. It was his defense.
Then, in a game on New Year’s Day of this year, Brooks sprinted from the middle of the field to the Seahawks’ sideline at Lumen Field to stop New York Jets tight end C.J. Uzomah after a catch. While he turned and tackled Uzomah in the same motion, Brooks’ right leg planted awkwardly into the synthetic grass.
He immediately grabbed his right knee. He’d shredded the anterior cruciate ligament in it. He knew that meant reconstructive surgery. And that typically meant a year-long slog to recover.
On Jan. 19, Brooks had the ligament of a donated cadaver put into his knee to reconstruct it.
“First, I’d never been hurt before. Like, seriously,” he said at his locker before practice this week. “I was listening to what people were saying; they were saying, like, a year. Nine months.
“But — I kid you not — I never believed that.
“You guys will hear it later this year, at some point, the real purpose of me getting hurt. It had nothing to do with football. I’m not going to tell it now. But it’s a great story.
“I’ll leave you in suspense. It’s not time to tell that story yet.
“It was life-changing for me — and somebody close to me. I solely believe that’s why I got hurt. That’s for another day, for sure.”
The road back from a torn ACL and reconstructive surgery is a seemingly endless grind, for professional athletes and non-athletes alike. It comes with a constant pressure and tension — not just in the muscles around the knee, but in the mind.
Will I make it back? If I do, will I be the same player or active person? What about this cadaver ligament? Will it work?
When will these strength and flexibility exercises ever end?
“The biggest thing you always think of, obviously you want to be patient, but you assume that it’s going to be a minimum of a year,” said Seahawks defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt, who’s had multiple major knee surgeries.
“For anybody.”
Not for Brooks.
He had an example to motivate him through that grind.
Adrian Peterson tore the ACL and medial collateral ligament in his knee on Dec. 24, 2011. On Sept. 9, 2012, Peterson (who briefly played for the Seahawks at the end of 2021, his last NFL season) rushed for 84 yards in Minnesota’s opener. He was on his way to 2,097 yards rushing and the NFL most valuable player award for the 2012 season.
Peterson’s return in eight months and two weeks is regarded as the greatest, most successful one from a torn ACL and knee reconstruction in recent sports history. National stories on Peterson in that 2012 NFL season had headlines such as “Adrian Peterson: Best ACL recovery ever?”
Sunday, on the same field where Brooks’ career seemingly derailed eight months and nine days earlier, Brooks is playing in the Seahawks’ season opener against the Los Angeles Rams. He will start at weakside 3-4 linebacker next to the also-returning Wagner, who is back with Seattle after his year away with the Rams.
Brooks’ return to playing in a game is faster than Peterson’s, by one week.
“Honestly, that’s what I was looking at,” Brooks said Wednesday of his recovery this winter into spring. “That’s what inspired me.
“I saw Adrian Peterson. I saw his story. I felt like I could do the same thing.”
Brooks chuckled.
Of all the storylines to this Seahawks opener — Wagner’s return, quarterback Geno Smith’s beginning to follow up on his Pro Bowl 2022 season, rookie receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s debut 2 1/2 weeks after wrist surgery — Wagner says one story stands above all others.
Brooks already playing, eight months after knee reconstruction.
“It’s amazing. I hope we don’t just pass on it like this is not a big deal,” Wagner said. “That’s an extremely big deal, something that we should definitely applaud, definitely appreciate and acknowledge.
“That’s not easy. Having that type of injury, coming back and being ready for the first game. I think when he got hurt, I don’t think anybody thought he was going to be ready for this first game. To be in that position, looking great, moving great, it’s an accomplishment in itself.
“I really hope we as a world don’t just look over like that’s an easy thing to do.”
First in the league?
Brooks’ return isn’t just ceremonial.
They need him. They must improve the weakest part of a playoff team last season: the run defense. It ranked 30th in the NFL in 2022.
Coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider spent up to $124.5 million in new contracts for the defensive front seven. They added a new line of ends Dre’Mont Jones and Mario Edwards and nose tackle Jarran Reed. They brought back Wagner, re-signed outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu and used two picks in the first five round of the draft on defensive linemen, Cameron Young and Mike Morris.
Brooks thinks it’s not the new bodies that will be the key to the rushing defense this season. It’s the minds.
“I think it’s more so attitude,” Brooks said. “Last year we just got off to a bad start. I think once the theme, narrative coming in got too many guys frustrated where we just couldn’t come together. We also got some new faces in. I think also just the new energy, the new vibes, having Bobby back, I think we will be 10 times better than we were last year.
“I could see us being first in the league this year, just because of attitude.”
Extra special Sunday
Brooks acknowledges how special running out of the tunnel from the Seahawks’ locker room onto Lumen Field to play Sunday will be.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I mean, I love football, man. Only thing I’ve done in my life. So, to kind of have seven months sitting down and just missing it...it’s going to be special to be back out there.”
Carroll and Hurtt say they are going to be monitoring Brooks’ snaps and how he’s faring during Sunday’s game.
“It just depends on the load that he takes. There may be some long drives or whatever,” Carroll said. “We’ve just got to try and be really smart. We’ve got to do this just on feel.
“He doesn’t want to come out. He doesn’t want to come out at all.”
Then the coach acknowledged: “I’m maybe dragging an attack on myself.”
Yes, he is.
“Yeah, we’ve had those talks,” Brooks said. “They are going to have to come drag me off.
“I’m here to compete. Knowing me, once I’m out there, I don’t see myself coming out. I can definitely see myself playing 60 snaps.”
Jamal Adams brings Brooks back
Brooks had a partner in his grind.
Teammate Jamal Adams, the three-time Pro Bowl safety who has yet to return from his quadriceps tendon he tore 12 months ago, was shoulder to shoulder with Brooks at the same physical-therapy training center in Frisco, Texas. Since Adams had his injury four months before Brooks, Adams was deeper into rehabilitation exercises outside Dallas when Brooks began his work there following his surgery Jan. 19.
Yet Brooks jumped right into the same drills Adams was doing.
All spring into summer, Brooks and Adams did knee strengthening and flexibility drills. They ran on elliptical machines and souped-up treadmills. They ran straight-line sprints.
Their workouts turned ultra-competitive. There was trash talk.
Still is.
“His injury is a little bit worse than mine, but I’d say (it was) about June when we started running 40s and stuff,” Brooks said. “We were definitely competing to see who could run the fastest 40.
“Of course, I beat him.”
Peterson was the far-off motivation for Brooks’ return. Adams was the man by his side every day who pushed Brooks back.
“Jamal has a heck of a personality. That was the biggest boost for my recovery,” Brooks said. “Seeing him and how he was reacting to his injury, having fun every day during his rehab process, encouraged me to bring that attitude to rehab every day.
“It’s huge (to have that). Especially Jamal. He’s a little psycho in the head.
“His approach to it, it was big for me, man.
“Credit to Jamal, God and my trainer. Man, those three had the biggest impact to my recovery.”
The Seahawks excused Brooks and Adams from offseason workouts and the mandatory minicamp in June so as to not interrupt the progress they were making in Texas.
Thursday, Brooks and Adams were on the side of the practice field continuing their dual training. The team expects Adams to try full practicing for the first time next week.
Brooks said though Peterson’s return gave him a target date to motivate him back, it wasn’t until he got to training camp and its first practice July 26 that he believed he could play in this opener.
“It was honestly standing on the sidelines,” he said. “I can’t describe...like, it’s hard for me to sit here and watch these guys practice. I want to be out there.
“We started doing our drills, Jamal and me on the side. And I just became more and more confident doing that. Then, eventually, I went out to practice.
“It was honestly them just motivating me, watching them practice.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2023 at 7:02 AM.
