Lions coach Jim Caldwell said Saturday that Joique Bell is "moving along really well" in his recovery after being placed on the physically unable to perform list prior to training camp. Bell had offseason surgery to help solve knee and Achilles issues and missed the entire spring recovering from those injuries.
He's also missed all of training camp but has been running off to the side almost daily in an attempt to ramp up for his eventual return.
"After speaking to the doctors back in June, he said if I was running at all by the end of July, I'm making good progress," Bell said. "I feel by the end of July I was running. I'm not going to say I'm ready to go out there and take every play and run every down right now, but you never know how I feel in two weeks."
Bell did say he does not think he needs to take hits during the preseason to prepare for the season opener, mostly because he's been playing football his entire life. He said he and the Lions are "still playing it by ear" as for when he'll be activated.
When Bell does return, the Lions expect he'll be able to handle a full workload fairly soon after that.
Bell was the #14 RB in standard formats (#13 in PPR), while racking up 257 touches in 15 games. That works out to a 17.1-touch average. While he certainly benefited from Reggie Bush's injury-plagued season, Bell dominated the touches even when Bush was active and playing. We now project Ameer Abdullah for more touches, but not by much. Bell is likely to see the goal line work and is active in the passing game as well, so his 7th round ADP seems more than reasonable.
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