In a game against the Atlanta Falcons last season, Bengals cornerback Adam Jones injured his neck while attempting to break up a pass. It's been a difficult road back for him since that injury.
First, Jones had surgery to repair the injury which required a long rehabilitation period. Then, shortly after a run-in with the law this offseason, Jones had second neck procedure to make sure that things were healing properly and that there were no other issues that would force him to miss the 2011 season.
Even though he passed his physical, with all of the uncertainty surrounding Jones' injury, the Bengals wisely put him on the Physically Unable to Perform List (PUP) to start the season. Being on this list makes Jones unavailable to the Bengals for the first six weeks of the regular season. He has since been working with trainers and doctors to be able to come back to the team immediately after he's off of the PUP List.
Via his Twitter account, Jones gave some good news about his neck today:
Just got cleared neck is a 100 thank u God
Although there's been no official word from the team yet, this is good news that he's on track to be back with the club in the timframe that everybody had envisioned. He'll bring more depth to a position group that looked thin towards the end of the preseason. When Jones returns, will the Bengals keep five cornerbacks on the roster as the usually do? We think they will, but we'll have to see when that time comes.