You don’t get a lot of questions with Tom Nalen, so I had to get right to the point.
“How’s the knee?”
“It’s getting better,” Nalen said. “I have a bone bruise, and that’s where the pain is coming from. Once that heals, then I can deal with my knee.”
So does he see any reason he wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season?
“I don’t think so, but I don’t know,” he said. “I’m not a doctor, so it’s hard to say.”
Nalen said the pain in his left knee, reconstructed in 2002 and scoped during the offseason, isn’t as bad as it looks. Good thing. Frankly, it has been painful watching him limp along the sideline at Dove Valley.
He hasn’t practiced since early in training camp. Wednesday, he played pseudo-quarterback, fielding snaps while his fellow offensive linemen slugged it out with the Cowboys’ pass rushers.
Good news on the Nalen front: He has targeted Monday for his return to practice. That’s the most tangible sign yet that his knee is responding to treatment.
“It hurts,” Nalen said, “but I just need to give it a little more time.”
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
