More Details on When Joe Haden's Ankle Injury Occurred

When the Browns announced last week that CB Joe Haden was having ankle surgery, they referenced the fact that he had hurt his ankle mid-way through last season against the Arizona Cardinals. Many people wondered why he would wait so long to have surgery. My assumption was that maybe he felt plenty of rest would let him heal without surgery, but that it never fully healed and now decided to have it so that he'd be fine in time for training camp in 2016. That assumption would've been wrong.

According to Executive VP of Football Operations Sashi Brown at the NFL owners meetings today, the team didn't know that Haden needed surgery until about 10 days ago. Brown also informed reporters that Haden suffered the injury during an offseason workout, and that they don't know if it is related to when he hurt his ankle against the Cardinals last year. Given the fact that Haden surprised the Browns by saying he had to be inactive for a finger injury last year, it's not a good look for Haden, who is looking to redeem himself in 2016 after an awful 2015.

The Browns' initial press release hinted that Haden should be ready-to-go for training camp, but Brown told reporters that it was too early to tell whether he'd be ready for the start of the season. They expect him to start doing some drills in training camp, but that doesn't guarantee he'll be ready for Week 1. Let's keep our fingers crossed, because both the defense and Haden himself need to be much-improved this year.