Lions kicker Jason Hanson, who is entering his 19th season in the NFL, is planning to have surgery on his left (non-kicking) knee this afternoon. Hanson apparently hurt the knee yesterday while planting for a kick, requiring him to have arthroscopic surgery today in order to recover.
For Hanson, this is the second straight summer he will have "minor" knee surgery. Last year, he hurt his right (kicking) knee and was out until the beginning of the regular season. That surgery came a couple weeks later than now, so he had less time to recover. With the added recovery time and the fact that this is supposed to be nothing more than minor, Jim Schwartz doesn't think Hanson will be out beyond the preseason.
"We’ve never put timetables on guys, but don’t anticipate it being a thing that would jeopardize the start of this season or anything else," Schwartz said. "Really won’t know a whole lot till they get in there, but we don’t anticipate it being anything but minor."
"We’re anticipating a very similar situation as last year," Schwartz said. "The difference is last year it occurred deeper into training camp; this is real early."
While Hanson is out, he will be replaced by Aaron Pettrey, who was signed earlier in the summer to take some of the load off of Hanson. Now he will be the Lions' kicker until Hanson returns.