After missing entire '06 season, Chargers' Sproles healthy again

By: MIKE SULLIVAN - Staff Writer | Tuesday, May 8, 2007 11:32 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO -- It was a sight seen over and over again during the Chargers' recent minicamp. Darren Sproles would have the ball in his hands in the open field and display impressive speed while churning up yardage.

It may have been one of the more welcome sights over the three-day sessions.

Sproles, a running back, missed the entire 2006 season after breaking the fibula in his left leg against Green Bay during an August exhibition game. Nine months later, he says he's fully recovered and new coach Norv Turner believes it after what he viewed over the weekend.

"He looks quick to me," Turner said after one practice. "He's been running and going full speed since I got here so he's fully recovered and going good."

Things weren't so good last year. Sproles could only watch as the team produced a franchise-best 14-2 record. He often felt helpless.

"It was rough," Sproles said. "The hardest part for me was going to meetings and going out to the games and sitting on the sidelines watching.

"I couldn't do anything to help."

Sproles, a fourth-round pick in 2005, only touched the ball on offense 11 times as a rookie and doesn't figure to see it a lot this season with NFL MVP LaDainian Tomlinson and Michael Turner in front of him.

Sproles did shine as the team's main kickoff returner during his rookie campaign. He averaged 24.3 yards per return and his 1,528 kickoff return yards were third most in franchise history, just 13 yards off the team record set by Ronney Jenkins in 2001.

Yet, regaining kickoff duties is no slam dunk for Sproles. Not after Michael Turner replaced him last season and averaged 26.5 yards and Antonio Cromartie (29.7) excelled in limited duty. Sproles averaged 6.0 yards as a punt returner in 2005, but it's likely that first-round pick Craig Davis or Eric Parker (8.9 last season) will handle those duties this season.

"Unfortunately, he got hurt a year ago," Norv Turner said. "He's going to have a heck of an opportunity and we do have some other guys that can return, so it's going to be a great competition."

The 5-foot-6, 181-pound Sproles is eager to show off the skills that saw him rush for a school-record 4,979 yards at Kansas State. He doesn't turn 24 until next month.

"I'll pretty much be like a kick returner or punt returner who can come in as a spot player and on third downs sometimes," Sproles said. "Line up in the slot some times and run some little draws."

A limited role certainly beats watching from the sidelines with a broken leg.

-- Contact staff writer Mike Sullivan at (760) 739-6645 or msullivan@nctimes.com.

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