JACKSONVILLE – Dante Fowler Jr. doesn’t know when he’ll take off the big brace on his left knee. He thinks he could do it now, but he likes the feeling of protection as he emerges from a rookie season erased by injury to prepare for his overdue NFL debut.
All he’s waiting on now is the explosion, which is coming back gradually, he says. And the Jacksonville Jaguars have big plans for Fowler, whose potential to develop as an edge rusher drove their decision to take him third overall in last year’s draft.
“This is not going to stop me from getting to a quarterback,” Fowler told USA TODAY Sports, grinning as he pointed to the brace after a recent practice, “so I’m not worried about that at all.
“I know it’s going to be one day or one game when we all know that I’m back.”
Fowler has had a lot of time to dream about that moment since tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament in rookie minicamp in May 2015, eight days after he was drafted.
He spent the next 13 months mostly away from the public eye, save for a brief furor in February over a video posted by TMZ of him watching the mother of his child and another woman fight – “a family incident with two of my really close friends” that has since been settled, he says.
Fowler wasn’t physically involved in the altercation and isn’t expected to be suspended, according to a person with knowledge of the NFL’s review, speaking on condition of anonymity because no decision had been announced. There’s no reason to believe health will hold back Fowler either.
“A lot of times when guys come back from their knee injury like that, there’s a period of time that it takes for them to grow confident that ‘it’s good, I trust it,’” Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said. “Not with Dante Fowler. He got out there the first day and he went. Incredible mindset.”
So what do the Jaguars – who ranked 23rd in the NFL in sacks per pass play last season and could have up to six new starters on defense in 2016 – expect from Fowler after a year away?
Bradley says he has the opportunity to play all three downs at the “Leo” defensive end position, which is designed to create ideal pass-rush situations off either edge for a player that may be undersized for a 4-3 end. (Fowler is listed at 6-foot-3, 261 pounds.)
In three seasons at the University of Florida, Fowler had just 14½ sacks, including 8½ as a junior in 2014. The Jaguars are betting his physical traits project to more production in the NFL. He’s still only 21 years old. And he’s had extra time to study the defense before playing his first snap.
“That’s why I feel like I’m practicing so well out here,” Fowler said, “because really, I know all my plays, so I don’t have to think. I can just go whenever I want.”
One of the first Jaguars players to reach out to Fowler after his injury was veteran end Jared Odrick, who’d been hurt early in his own rookie year. Bradley and others met with Fowler as often as possible last season, trying to make him feel part of the team.
“There’s multiple times where I think he had raw emotion during games. You could tell he wanted to be out there so bad,” Bradley said. “But I think we have great faith and we say things happen for a reason. I do think that through it all, he’s stronger. He’s matured through it.”
Fowler says he’s doing the same off the field, where he has aspirations in fashion and TV and is conscious of his image. He apologized for the video, which he discussed with Jaguars and league officials before it posted, and promises “that’ll never, ever happen again, because that’s not me.”
What is Fowler as an NFL player? Brace or no brace, everyone is finally about to find out.
“It’s not something like I wake up and think, ‘Oh man, I don’t do this, I do that,’” Fowler said. “I feel good, like I can just go right back out there and start running around again. I just treat it like I’m back in ball. I’m not playing catchup.”
Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero
