The decision by the Arizona Cardinals to have guard Will Hernandez open the regular season on the active roster rather than reserve/physically unable to perform (PUP) creates an obvious question of when he’ll be able to play and be active on game day.

Hernandez suffered a torn ACL in Week 5 last season against the San Francisco 49ers and, after a 10-month rehab process, signed a one-year contract on Aug. 7.

The move to the 53-man roster 19 days later shows how far he’s come in his recovery.

Four days after signing Hernandez told reporters his knee “feels great,” and added, “I’ve actually surprised myself along with a lot of other trainers and people talking about timelines and all that and what happened specifically in there. Obviously, we attacked the rehab and I took it as my rehab is my new Sundays, except for I was saying it was Sunday every day. So, thankfully, all that work has been paying off.”

When asked the day after the roster reduction to 53 what the next steps are for Hernandez, head coach Jonathan Gannon said, “He’s getting close to being ready to start going to practice on the grass, things like that. He’s doing a really good job with his return to play. He’s getting a little bit better every day. Mentally, he’s basically caught up because we did change a couple of things that he had to learn (that were) a little bit new for him. But we’ll take it one day at a time.”

There will be a lot of monitoring what it looks like on the field as Hernandez progresses from individual drills to team segments or possibly on the scout team.

“With that one, you kind of got to forecast a little bit when you think he’s going to be ready to practice, when you think he’s going to be ready to play, what makes the most sense with with him with a guy like that,” Gannon said. “Because our health deal, they’re all different. But sometimes you’ve got to have a little bit of, I don’t want to say forecasting, but where is he at right now? Where can he be in a week or two weeks or four weeks?

“And then you make the decision. But he’s a guy that’s played a lot of ball for us, a lot of really good winning football for us and glad we have him on the 53 right now.”

It’s difficult to project what his role will be when he becomes active for games. Isaiah Adams, a third-round pick last season, started five games at the end of the year, and will be the starter in Week 1. To a man, his linemates have talked about his improvement and Hernandez is one of them.

“They say almost every player from Year 1 to Year 2 is their biggest improvement,” he said. “So I’ve definitely seen improvement. I know that they drafted him for a reason, that he has a lot of potential and a lot of attributes that make him a great player.

“I’m glad to see not just him but everybody on the offensive line getting better too.”

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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Arizona Cardinals G Will Hernandez working to return to play