Jordan Reed has two fewer bones and a whole lot of peace of mind.

Toe soreness in offseason workouts more than a year ago became lingering pain that threw off everything for the Washington Redskins tight end. Overcompensation led to a hamstring injury that kept Reed off the field Titans Rashaan Evans Jersey , and he never felt like himself even when he was able to play.

So Reed went under the knife twice to have a sesamoid bone in each big toe removed. Reed now feels "100 times better" and hopes his toe injuries are a thing of the past so he can get back to his form of 2015, when he had 87 catches for 952 yards and 11 touchdowns.

"It's definitely a relief," Reed said Friday. "Just having that nagging pain for two years was awful and now it's gone, so it's just a lot better."

Reed said toe fractures gave him little choice but to have the surgeries, one on his left foot in December and the other on the right in February. They've so far worked out far better than his decision to get a stem-cell injection in the summer of 2017 that aggravated his toe problem so much he couldn't walk.

That self-described "poor decision" completely derailed Reed's season, limiting him to 27 catches in six games. He tried orthotics in his shoes to ease the pain, but nothing worked, leading to an operation that's more common for dancers and exceedingly rare for the general public.

"That's usually kind of like the last stop on the train," said Mark Drakos, a foot and ankle surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. "They're very little bones. They're about the size of like a Peanut M&M, so they're very, very small. Most bones, if they break or they don't heal, we'll go in and fix them with plates and screws of if you break your ankle Sean Lee Jersey Elite , we put it back together. These are so small that a lot of times we just take it out because it's quicker. It's a quicker recovery."

Reed is well past the usual eight-to-12-week recovery period and has looked sharp in individual and team drills early in camp. Just having him on the field again is a plus for the Redskins, who need the 28-year-old to create matchup problems for opposing defenses.

"He is a unique guy at the tight end position that can do so many things: route-running with the ball in his hands after the catch," new quarterback Alex Smith said. "He is oftentimes the guy that it doesn't really matter who's lined up against him 鈥?linebacker, safety, corner. He is a guy that I think has the skill set to win against all these positions."

Coach Jay Gruden, who early in camp a year ago didn't think Reed's toe injury would be a long-term concern, is hopeful now because, as he put it, "I have to be."

"I think he's one of the top tight ends in the National Football League when healthy," Gruden said. "Last year, he tried to fight through a couple of those injuries in the offseason. He got them fixed, so hopefully we'll put an end to all those foot and toe injury things and ankle. Jordan, he feels great right now, very optimistic about the way his body feels and now it's our job to make sure we just progress him along at a good rate."

Gruden hopes to get Reed into a preseason game or two and have him 100 percent for the season opener against Arizona. On a team with a handful of players working back from injuries Authentic Rashaan Gaulden Jersey , Reed is taking a conservative approach as he balances restraint with the excitement of what he could do when finally healthy again.

"Still working through that with the coaches and taking it slow," he said. "I'm just getting my body built back up. ... I'm confident moving forward."

NOTES: Second-year LB Ryan Anderson left practice with back spasms and he's considered day-to-day. A team spokesman said RB Rob Kelley's departure was heat-related. ... LB Zach Brown was a limited participant in team drills a day after straining the quadriceps muscle in his left thigh. ... The team's afternoon walkthrough was cut short by lightning. Unlike their regular practice facility in Ashburn, Virginia, outside Washington, the Redskins do not have an indoor bubble at their Richmond site.

The Buffalo Bills‘ long-term future in western New York was secured when Terry and Kim Pegula purchased the franchise following the death of Hall of Fame owner Ralph Wilson in 2014.

Where the team will play its home games – at its current stadium in suburban Orchard Park or at a new downtown Buffalo facility – within the next decade is the question.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell touched on the topic at league meetings in Florida on Wednesday by saying the Pegulas are ”at a very early stage” in assessing their options. Goodell then left the details to be announced by the owners when they are ready to share them with the community.

On Tuesday, Terry Pegula said, ”We talk about that heavily internally, but not publicly,” when asked if the Bills would consider using the opt-out clause in their lease in two years to explore a new stadium site.

The Bills later clarified Pegula’s comment by saying he was referring to long-term stadium plans and adding that the team had no plans to opt out of the lease, which expires in the summer of 2023.

The Bills maintain they are early in their planning process and have not ruled out any option. They’re also aware that time will become an issue in determining whether the next lease negotiations will focus on a long- or short-term agreement.

The questions come down to building a new stadium, either downtown or near the Bills’ existing site; renovating their current home, New Era Field; and how much public money would be spent.

One possibility is pairing a new stadium and Buffalo’s need for a new convention center, which would ease concerns over taxpayer money being spent on a stand-alone sports facility.

A new stadium alone would cost approximately $1 billion.

Staying at New Era Field, which opened in 1973 http://www.49ersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-cassius-marsh-jersey , also wouldn’t come cheap.

A stadium site selection study conducted by AECOM Technical Services in 2014 projected it would cost $540 million for the next series of renovations, including structural improvements and rebuilding the stadium’s third deck. The study based its estimates on what it cost the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs to extensively renovate their facilities over the previous decade.

And that cost is on top of the $130 million in renovations that took place four years ago, and the $18 million the Pegulas are spending on club seat upgrades this year.

The next step would involve the Bills hiring a firm to conduct a feasibility study to identify sites, costs and what best suits a franchise based in one of the NFL’s smallest markets.

The AECOM study was commissioned by New York state – not the Bills – at an uncertain time during the sale process. Concerned that someone out of town would purchase the Bills and consider relocating them, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had the study conducted to provide prospective owners a list of options of what the region had to offer.

The relocation fear ended once the Pegulas, who own the NHL’s Sabres and have established a corporate base in Buffalo, emerged as the front-runners.

The AECOM study can at least still serve as a guide.

Of the three downtown stadium sites identified, one is no longer an option because it has since been developed.

The site that drew the most attention is a large two-block parcel of street-level parking lots located in the city’s emerging Cobblestone entertainment district. The site is located a block east of the Sabres’ arena and within two blocks of HarborCenter, a $200 million hotel and hockey entertainment facility built by the Pegulas, and the headquarters of Pegula Sports and Entertainment.

One person directly involved in discussions three years ago, after the Pegulas purchased the team, told The Associated Press in January that the Bills were focused on building a downtown stadium, and that the Cobblestone site was regarded as ”one of the prime target areas.” The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

It’s unclear whether those plans have changed.

At the time, the state was tentatively committed to funding the necessary infrastructure upgrades Justin Jones Jersey Chargers , such as expanding roadways and access ramps from nearby Interstate 190. The site is also close to public transportation. It’s a five-minute drive from the Peace Bridge border crossing into southern Ontario, a few blocks from the Amtrak Rail station, and within about 15,000 parking spaces.

Developer Carl Paladino, who owns a large number of properties in the area, called the Cobblestone site ”the most logical place to put it (a stadium),” in an interview with the AP in January.

Kim Pegula outlined the challenges the Bills faced during an interview with the AP in 2014.

”You only get to build a stadium once, so we just want to make sure we take our time and do the right thing,” she said. ”We just want to make sure that when the time comes that we have done all our homework and have the best stadium that we can for Buffalo.”

The Pegulas have since backed off discussing stadium plans by calling them premature, and added they’re satisfied with the most recent renovations.

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