Amegadjie on being activated, his love for the Bears and Devin Hester |
CHICAGO - After working for months to return from his quad surgery, rookie offensive lineman Kiran Amegadjie has been activated.
He made his training camp debut and finally got some reps in. “It’s tough whenever the game is taken away from you. But, I’m really excited to be back, really excited to get to work,” Amegadjie said. “I was just taking it day-by-day really, doing what I (needed) to do daily to get ready for whenever my body was going to say, ‘Yes.’ I didn’t necessarily have a set timeline or anything. I was just in there working every single day (and) trying to get ready as fast as possible.” During his recovery time, Amegadjie was still working to learn the playbook and work through mental reps as if he were on the field. Although that is not the same as physically being on the field and taking those reps, it allows him to be in a slightly better position to improve his technique and know what he needs to do on any given play than if he did not have those mental reps. “I think the mental reps help me tremendously because when I get out there and I’ll be a step ahead in terms of knowing where I’m supposed to go and that’ll allow me to play a lot faster and at the end of the day, football just kind of comes naturally,” Amegadjie said. “So, after that, it’s just instincts and playing.” The people make all the difference when recovering from surgery, especially one that takes numerous months. He originally had the surgery back in October and began rehabilitation with the Yale staff before transitioning to the Chicago Bears staff. According to Amegadjie, that transition was seamless. Chicago’s offensive line coach, Chris Morgan, was also incredibly helpful during this process by making sure he was doing everything he needed to in regard to the playbook so he would be ready to take the field once he was physically able. “He’s been amazing, just kind of helping me to understand the playbook,” Amegadjie said. “He’s always willing to answer any question I have (and) always checking in, (making) sure that I’m staying on top of what I need to do playbook-wise. So, he’s been amazing for me.” Drafting Amegadjie followed a trend that started under general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus. They have shown a propensity to take interest in players who were raised as Chicago Bears fans. Growing up in Hinsdale, Amegadjie is no exception. He started following the Bears when he was six years old, prompted by watching Hall of Famer Devin Hester return the opening kickoff in Super Bowl XLI for a touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts. “My favorite all-time player was Devin Hester,” Amegadjie said. “When I grew up, I didn’t really know much about football with my parents being from Africa and I was about six years old and I saw him return the opening kick in the Super Bowl and I fell in love with football after that. So, he’s a big reason why I’m here today.” Because Chicago’s preseason finale against the Kansas City Chiefs is on Thurs. Aug. 22 (7:20 p.m. / FOX 32 or NFL Network), Amegadjie probably will not be able to play in that game. However, he may be able to appear in Chicago’s regular-season opener against the Tennessee Titans on Sun. Sept. 8 (Noon / FOX).
