Quick has come a long way to get back on track

Brian Quick has come a long way to get back on track

Vincent Bonsignore

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20161013/la-rams-receiver-brian-quick-has-come-a-long-way-to-get-back-on-track

In a physical sport like football where injuries and pain are an everyday fact of life, there are locker room code phrases to contrast degrees of seriousness.

At the very top of that list sits the “car wreck” distinction. It requires no explanation or clarification, really. But for the particularly curious or naive, let’s just say gruesome pretty much sums it up.

It’s an aspect of football life as real and prevalent as the water coolers that line the back of a sideline. And it hovers as close as the very next play.

For obvious reasons it’s a subject players acknowledge only in hushed tones and knowing glances.

They know the deal. No sense dwelling on it.

For Brian Quick, the very next play occurred in 2014 during the brightest stretch of his young career. Its ramifications would be felt for almost two full years, rendering Quick almost an afterthought among Rams wide receivers and eventually left many to assume he was nothing more than a second-round bust.

All that talk has faded this year, what with Quick now settling in as a dependable receiver and viable long threat in the Rams’ pass game. He leads the team in touchdowns and yards per catch at 18. Not bad for a player many wrote off as he struggled with dropped passes during training camp, caught the wrath of head coach Jeff Fisher and seemed to be overtaken on the depth chart by promising rookies Pharoh Cooper and Nelson Spruce.

The mistake is assuming it came out of nowhere.

If anything it’s actually the continuation of a path Quick was clearing two years ago when he opened the season with 25 catches for 375 yards and three touchdowns. In doing so, he was setting himself up for a career season.

“Yeah he really was,” Fisher said. “He was really productive for us.”

But then the next play reared its ugly head. And it changed everything.

“The injury that I had, people might think it was a little injury that was easy to come back from,” Quick said. “But there was so much more to it.”

Two years ago against the Kansas City Chiefs, Quick grabbed a pass from Austin Davis then was immediately hit from behind Chiefs cornerback Jamell Flemming. In the blink of an eye, Flemming and Quick were headed to the ground.

The combination of Quick and Flowers’ body weight and the angle and ferocity of the fall put the brunt of the pressure onto Quick’s left shoulder, causing a complete tear of the rotator cuff and a dislocated shoulder.

“Pain, man,” he said.

The ensuing prognosis and the weeks and months that followed confirmed the worst.

“I literally tore everything in my shoulder.” Quick said.

Rams general manager Les Snead described it as a “car wreck” injury. Rams trainer Reggie Scott said he’d never seen anything like it. There was talk it might be career ending.

And when rehabilitation eventually began, there was less focus on football and more about getting Quick to a point where he could reach up to a kitchen cabinet and grab a plate.

Quick understood the worst-case scenario might include a life without football. But it wasn’t something he dwelled on.

It took some mind games, but he managed.

“I tried to treat it like a normal every day injury and kept grinding trying to get back,” he said.

The rest of the 2014 season was lost, obviously. And while Quick was cleared to play in 2015, the 10 catches and 102 yards he managed indicates his body wasn’t yet ready to deliver what the mind was demanding.

“Not being in the groove, it’s tough,” he said. “I wanted that to happen, but they knew it was going to take time.”

The short attention span of professional sports diverted attention away from what Quick had been through — and what he was coming back from — and onto his lack of production.

No matter the reasons, he wasn’t delivering like a high second-round pick should. The bust label soon followed.

“You have to fight. You have to be strong mentally,” Quick kept reminding himself.

The Rams signed Quick to a one-year, make-good contract during the offseason, but when he got off to a slow start in training camp and the preseason, his spot on the Rams roster seemed to be fading.

And as the dropped passes mounted, his chances of making the team dwindled.

The irony is his body felt terrific.

The dropped balls were all mental.

“Stuff happens in your life. You don’t understand why,” Quick said. “I’ve never been that guy to do stuff like that. That’s why it was surprising to coaches, even myself.

Injuries to Cooper and Spruce granted Quick a reprieve, and he’s made the most of it by emerging as the Rams most reliable receiver.

It’s not a surprise, though.

More of a continuation.

“Before he got injured, he was definitely one of our top receivers,” said Rams linebacker Alec Ogletree. “For him to bounce back, he comes to work every day and just gets better.”

It’s forced us to look at Quick differently. But maybe we just weren’t viewing him in the proper lens to begin with.

“I’m all the way back,” he said. “Nothing hurts. Nothing is bothering me. I have my confidence back. I’m doing all the things I used to do and feeling like I used to feel.

“And that’s important. It’s extremely important. Especially for my team. They need me.”