Patriots' Warren moving in right direction
FOXBOROUGH - Ty Warren ended up in the breakdown lane for more than a pit stop last season for the first time in his NFL career, driven there by a torn groin muscle that parked him on the sideline for three games. However, after some offseason maintenance that included double groin surgery, Warren said yesterday he'll be ready to roll by training camp.
"I'm approaching it like I'm going to be ready, and I think I will be," said Warren, who had surgery in January to repair the groin muscle on his left side and the damage to his right groin, as well as a procedure to reattach an abdominal muscle.
"I can't really tell you anything outside of what's going to happen today, but I would say so. I'm taking the approach that I'll be able to do some things in minicamp [in June]. Hopefully, I'm doing something then. Now to what extent they allow me to do it and say I need to do something, that I don't know, but I'm taking that approach. That's just how I feel, my thoughts from my mouth. You heard it from the horse's mouth."
The Patriots' stalwart left defensive end said Tuesday was the first time during his rehabilitation he was permitted to run on the ground, as opposed to a treadmill.
"I'm definitely feeling better," he said. "I'm not taking steps back. When I've done things like run the first time on Tuesday there haven't been any setbacks. I'm on the right track."
Warren, 28, had missed just one of 80 regular-season games in five NFL seasons before last season. He gutted out four games, including the final three of 2008, with his injuries, but he was clearly not close to full speed after tearing the groin muscle on his left side against the Bills in Week 10. He finished with his lowest tackle total (65, according to coaches' film review) since 2004 (64), his second season in the league.
"My days here during the season, those last seven weeks, I wasn't really even in the meeting rooms," said Warren. "I'd go in, and I'd get my game plan from [defensive line coach Pepper Johnson], sit in on [coach Bill Belichick's] meeting, and I'd go in with the trainers and I'd exercise all the way up until practice just to try to strengthen my injury up as best as possible, so I could do some things in the game. I would go out during practices and do some modified activities out there, not all out, just to grasp the concept of what the game plan was."
Warren said that in addition to the groin surgeries and the hernia, he had a procedure to clean up his right knee in February. Warren, who is entering his seventh season, joked that he felt like a car getting a 60,000-mile tuneup.
"I actually told the doctors that right before I went in," said Warren. "All in all, despite going through that last year, I've been fortunate. This is the first time I've had to have surgery since college. I've been fortunate. Hopefully, the next time I need another checkup is at 120,000 miles. That would be great."
While Warren's body might not come with a lifetime warranty, he does have financial security.
He is one of two members on the Patriots' regular defensive line rotation signed past this season. The five-year extension he agreed to in 2007 put him under contract through 2013, and set him up to make about $35 million from 2007-13.
The Patriots re-signed defensive end Mike Wright to a four-year deal this offseason, but nose tackle Vince Wilfork, right defensive end Richard Seymour, defensive end Jarvis Green, and nose tackle/defensive end Le Kevin Smith are entering the final year of their contracts. (Nose tackle Titus Adams is signed through 2011.)
"We touch on it. Everybody's situation is different," said Warren. "Best-case scenario: Everybody gets a deal worked out. Reality: That might not happen because you got so many pieces to this team that are going to be looking to get signed as well as they are.
"Selfishly, I'll say yeah, I want everybody to be here, but I understand the business side of it. It happens every year. I hope something - and I know they hope something - gets worked out when that time comes. We all got to be ready to deal with the reality, whatever that is. No matter their situation, my situation is my situation, so I got to go out there and perform and honor my contract and my responsibilities to this organization. That's what I'm going to continue to do, regardless of what happens. But those are good friends of mine."
Some have argued that Warren didn't do his friends any favors by taking a hometown discount on the extension to his six-year rookie deal.
"The way I kind of looked at it from my business standpoint was they're coming to me now, and I got two years left, with a five-year extension," said Warren. "I can keep playing and possibly get hurt and never see this day again or go ahead and get it right now - $18 million guaranteed the first three years or whatever - with the potential to have another opportunity to do it again.
"If you look at it like that, it's not a hometown discount. It's smart business is what it is. That's just the way I look at it."
Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com. 