It came as a very unpleasant surprise to Bengals fans when it became public knowledge that first round pick Dre Kirkpatrick suffered a knee injury this offseason. He announced it via Twitter just a couple of days before Training Camp and was deemed out for anywhere from 4-6 weeks. The prognosis was a condition called Osgood-Schlatter Sydrome, in which the rehab process is basically rest and icing the knee.

Kirkpatrick recently told Kevin Kelly of The Cincinnati Enquirer that his rehab process on the condition is going well. He was vague on a timetable of return though:

"The training staff is doing a great job with managing my injury and watching the things that I do to make sure I don’t further injure it," he said. "Me and Nick, we get out there every day. We go hard on the back field and we pretty much just do a lot of cone drills. Then I work with Chip (Morton, Bengals strength and conditioning coach) and do a couple of sprints just to get my wind back up for whenever they say I’m free to get back out."

Like they've been doing with other players battling injuries, the team is likely taking it a slow pace with Kirkpatrick to make sure he has every opportunity to get back on the field for the regular season opener. He may or may not make that game, given the undetermined results of the rest of the rehab process, but should be good to go right around that window of time. It's unlikely that Kirkpatrick would be put on the PUP List, as this injury shouldn't necessitate keeping him out that long. The sooner Kirkpatrick can return the better, as the position group has been hit with a lot of injuries of late.