It also took a simple google search to show you've found an exception to the rule...congrats! If you want to base your personnel moves on the exceptions to the rule, you're gonna have a bad time.
If you want to talk about ACL recovery with any seriousness, maybe you should be a little more strategic with your googling.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/may/11/acl-injuries-sports-athletes-careers
Here's the important part:
In the NFL, like other sports, a lasting return to play is also influenced by the player’s pre-injury position – 20% of running backs and wide receivers never return to the NFL and for those that do return, performance drops by a third. However, because their performance is less tied to lower body speed and explosiveness, 12 out of the 13 of NFL quarterbacks studied after ACL surgeries were able to resume playing at pre-injury levels.
On the defensive side of the ball,
just published research by the Aune and the American Sports Medicine Institute, the injury research think tank started by Dr James Andrews, indicates that 72% of NFL defensive players return to play at least one game after an ACL injury. But behind that relatively optimistic stat, the news isn’t good for those players on the margins. Average NFL players that tore an ACL saw their performance drop to below average. In time, performance might very well return to normal, but since the NFL is a produce-now league, those players often never return to play or last only for a short period of time before getting cut or released.
Generally, those who successfully returned were above-average NFL players before their injury but relatively average after their return. In other words, after an ACL surgery, a Pro Bowl level defensive player regresses to the performance level of an average player and an average player drops below the NFL standard.
Cool example of one player that overcame the odds though, really helping to move the conversation forward!
