Indianapolis Colts starting safeties Malik Hooker and Clayton Geathers waited anxiously for months to get back to work.

They agonizingly watched teammates run around as they learned the new defense. They were limited to sideline duty when the practice pace picked up at June's three-day minicamp. And they were still out when training camp opened.

Now both have returned from knee surgery Billy Price Jersey , eager to show the coaches just what they can do.

"It's been rough, but I try to get those thoughts out of my head and just keep going and try to help this team win," Geathers said Friday. "That was my goal coming in as a rookie and then one thing led to another. So I'm just trying to get back and get right."

While things haven't gone quite as smoothly as they'd hoped, at least they've been activated from the physically unable to perform list. Both are able to participate in position and individual drills and believe they'll soon be in 11-on-11 team work after a long, circuitous road back.

For Geathers, it's been one obstacle after another.

He showed promise as a rookie, making two starts and getting 31 tackles after the Colts selected him in the fourth round of the 2015 draft. Chuck Pagano's staff figured the next NFL prospect from the Geathers' family tree was perfectly suited as a hybrid safety/linebacker at 6-foot-2, 220 pounds.

Instead, Geathers missed seven games in 2016 with an assortment of injuries, including a concussion that put him on the season-ending injured reserve list in mid-December.

Then Geathers needed offseason neck surgery, sat out until Week 11 and wound up making eight tackles while playing five of the Colts' last six games. He spent the offseason again recovering from surgery Michael Brockers Jersey , this time on his knee.

"I went and got the procedure and one thing led to another and now we are here," he said. "We are off PUP and now we are back getting acclimated."

Hooker has a playmaking pedigree.

As a senior at Ohio State, he finished third in FBS with seven interceptions and led the nation by returning three for touchdowns. The Colts liked him so much they couldn't wait to take him with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2017 draft, prompting then-coach Pagano to draw a quick comparison with one of his former star pupils, Ed Reed.

Indy took a cautious approach with Hooker in training camp as he recovered from shoulder and sports hernia surgeries, but Hooker injured his hamstring at his first practice.

Once he finally got healthy, Hooker performed precisely as the Colts expected. He picked off passes in each of his first three starts, tying Eugene Daniels' Indianapolis era record for most consecutive games with an interception by a rookie.

But seven games into the season, Hooker tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee, requiring surgery that kept him off the field until Thursday.

"The ACL injury is a difficult injury to recover from, but I think and the coaching staff thinks that I'm doing a great job of recovering from that and just getting back out there Alfred Blue Jersey , not thinking twice about cutting, moving and things like that," Hooker said.

New coach Frank Reich hasn't provided a timetable for either to return to full action though the hope is both will be ready for the Sept. 9 season opener against Cincinnati.

Oddly enough, the starting safety duo has yet to work side by side, at practice or in a game, a streak likely to remain intact when the Colts open the preseason Thursday night at Seattle.

Still, the Colts think they have quite the combination.

"Just their physical presence 鈥?I'm standing over there and you look over there 鈥?I'm just telling you as a quarterback you notice it," Reich said. "It's a physical presence. You also know as a quarterback when you are playing a safety who has that knack to have ball production. You know guys like Earl Thomas. When you are a quarterback, you know 'I can't make a mistake' and any little mistake is going to be amplified when you've got a playmaker like that (Hooker)."

NOTES: Andrew Luck took another big step during Sunday morning's practice with a touchdown pass as time ran out in the two-minute drill. Under duress, Luck scrambled to his left and threw the ball 45 yards against his body while on the move. "That's a tough throw to make, so that's definitely checking something off Brian Allen Jersey ," Reich said. ... Left tackle Anthony Castonzo and Denzelle Good, who is competing to start at right tackle, both sat out with hamstring injuries. Reich said Castonzo will miss "some time" after reinjuring the hamstring that initially put him on the non-football injury list. Castonzo was activated Wednesday. He was hurt in Friday night's practice.

Giants coach Pat Shurmur says he expects Odell Beckham Jr. to attend offseason workouts when they start in April.

Trade rumors are surrounding the controversial star receiver and there has been strong speculation Beckham will hold out during training camp because he doesn’t want to play the fifth and final year of his rookie deal without a new contract.

”All reports are he will be ready to go as we get going,” Shurmur said Tuesday morning at the NFL meetings. ”There are steps he has to take. All indications are he will be back healthy by the time we start playing in September.”

Beckham is recovering from a broken left ankle that forced him to miss the last 12 games in 2017. Giants owner John Mara on Sunday expressed his disappointment in Beckham, saying no player is untouchable.

”That’s another way of saying we’re going to try to do everything we can to make our team better,” Shurmur said. ”I understand that. It’s sort of refreshing to know that we’re going to look under any rock and turn over every stone that we can to make sure we make the New York football Giants the best team we can make it.”

Beckham recently was seen in a video in bed with a woman and what appeared to be white powder, though the timing of the video and its content is uncertain. Mara said Beckham uses ”bad judgment” too often.

”I think it’s important that you get all the information,” Shurmur said. ”Who knows how that video appeared? We all understand that there are certain ways we need to act and certain things we don’t want to be doing.”

Shurmur met with Beckham in Los Angeles earlier in the offseason when he went to California to visit college prospects.

”He’s a very charismatic guy. I think he really cares. I’m looking forward to working with him,” Shurmur said. ”It’s important as coaches and players and anybody who is working together to visit and get a chance to know one another. I really don’t think you can know somebody by seeing reports, reading reports, hearing what people think and say. I think it’s important John Kelly Jersey , especially in the player-coach relationship, to get to know him.”

Beckham was the 2014 Offensive Rookie of the Year and has been New York’s best offensive weapon when healthy. In his first three seasons, he had 288 receptions for 4,122 yards and 35 touchdowns. But he’s known as much for his highlight-reel catches as incidents that are distractions.

”We always want weapons,” Shurmur said. ”He’s been an outstanding player, especially his first three years. We want really, really good players. We want guys who are passionate about playing the game. We want guys that understand the importance of relationships, which means they want to be coached. And we want guys that understand what it is to be a good teammate.”

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