Pinnock takes big step forward

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Tuesday, Aug 05, 2008
By Casey Pearce, Chargers.com

It may appear as a small step forward, but Andrew Pinnock sees it as a giant leap.

Seven months after undergoing microfracture surgery on his left knee, Pinnock was back on the field Tuesday as he participated in individual drills for the first time in training camp.

“It was a big hurdle to me,” Pinnock said. “I was able to put my pads on, get some reps, hit the bag and explode off. Coming out of my steps it felt good. I had a couple of passes where I really wanted to see where I was at as far as taking a flat route to my left and turning up on my left. I stuck my foot in the ground pretty hard a couple times and I didn’t feel anything different, so that was a relief.”

When training camp began, Pinnock was one of four Chargers placed on the “Active – Physically Unable to Perform” list. He passed his physical early this week and was back out with his teammates Tuesday, although Head Coach Norv Turner promises to be cautious with his starting fullback.

“He looked good,” Turner said. “He’s making progress. The way we do it instead of just throwing a guy back in, we’ll add to it when he’s ready. If he’s comfortable tomorrow with the individual stuff than maybe we can get him a little bit of limited team work.”

Microfracture surgery is an operation in which the holes are created in the surface layer of the bone near the knee joint to increase blood flow and stimulate cartilage growth. Pinnock used the word “patient” several times when describing his recovery process.

“It’s a different animal, but if you dedicate yourself to what you want to accomplish and treat yourself right, I don’t think it’s a problem,” Pinnock said. “Athletes are stubborn. We want to get going. With this surgery you have to be really careful about when you get back out there. You feel okay but you really have to give that cartilage time to heal.”

Pinnock started the final three games of the regular season last December as well as two playoff games. Turner lauded his physical play and approach to the game down the stretch. A seventh-round draft choice of the Chargers in 2003, Pinnock is set to see the most extensive playing time of his career this season as he becomes the full-time starter at fullback.

The Chargers were in full pads for Tuesday afternoon’s practice, but Pinnock hopes he’ll be able to get more involved when they hit the field in the shells Wednesday. A lot of that depends on how his knee responds physically from the work he did Tuesday.

“I think it will respond well because I’ve been really pushing myself. As far as my conditioning, I don’t feel that I’m that far off if I’m off at all. I was able to recover between reps today. It’s killed me not being out there but I have to be smart and do this right.”

Nice catch

Wide receiver Buster Davis was hurting a bit Tuesday, but you wouldn’t know it by his performance in practice. Davis is battling tendonitis in his knee yet managed a strong outing Tuesday with several big catches.

“He’s really done a great job fighting through it,” Turner said. “I think he’s feeling the best he’s felt the last few days and he has really come on.”

Davis was plagued by a few nagging injuries as a rookie but has devoted himself to staying healthy in year two of his NFL career in hopes of seeing his production increase.

Nice catches

The Chargers had just made their way into the locker room following practice Tuesday when a commercial featuring wide receiver Chris Chambers came on the TV. The spot is a promotional piece Chambers did with the NFL to promote fantasy football.

In the commercial, Chambers has his back to three men who throw footballs to him. He reaches out and snatches the first ball with his right hand, the second with his left and then the third he clamps between the other two balls.

So how’d he do it?

“I good magician never shares his secrets,” Chambers said.

Chambers’ teammates seemed to get a kick out of the commercial, which was filmed in his hometown of Cleveland. The shoot took place following Chambers’ youth football camp his foundation put on in June. He said it took roughly one hour to shoot.

Getting ready

The Chargers will spend a little time this week preparing for their preseason opener against the Dallas Cowboys, but practicing against themselves is helping them get ready.

“It’s unique,” Turner said. “I bet Dallas is looking at the same thing. With Wade (Phillips) there, they run a defense very similar to ours. We’re both very similar on offense. We both run the ball and are big in play-action pass. We’ve been practicing against a lot of the things we’ll see by going against ourselves. We’ll just use Thursday, do minimal preparation and go play.”

Phillips, Dallas’ head coach and defensive play caller, was the Chargers’ defensive coordinator for three seasons before taking his current job in February of 2007. Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett was the backup quarterback in Dallas in 1993 when Turner was the club’s offensive coordinator.

Sitting out

Chargers wide receiver Vincent Jackson missed a sixth-consecutive day of practice with soreness in his leg, but Turner promises that the team is simply being extremely cautious with “VJ.”

“I feel good about where Vincent is,” Turner said. “I would rather have him miss extra days here than have a nagging injury that carried him through six or eight weeks like a hamstring can. He’s making progress. He was going real good when he was practicing. I feel good about it.”

Others who sat out of Tuesday’s practice included center Jeremy Newberry, tight end Scott Chandler and defensive end Igor Olshansky. Linebacker Shawne Merriman was back to work after a couple days away from the field conditioning his knee.

Mike Nowak, Chargers.com

Andrew Pinnock was back on the field Tuesday afternoon.

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