Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

When Glover Quin had off-season surgery on his ankle two years ago, the Detroit Lions took a patient approach to their top safety's rehab.

Quin sat out most of the team's spring workouts in 2014, including organized team activities and minicamp, and he responded with a Pro Bowl year that fall.

Quin underwent a second procedure on the same ankle this off-season, and while the surgery wasn't quite as involved, he said his recovery is ahead of schedule thanks to a pre-surgical training regimen and he hopes to be cleared for the start of voluntary workouts next week.

"I feel good," Quin said in a phone interview Wednesday. "I've been doing some running and the recovery has been good. Like I said, I haven’t been in Detroit to be with the trainers and to go through all the rehab stuff, so I had to do what I had to do on my end. I think the recovery’s been good. We’ll see. It’s still early, so they may want to take it slow, who knows? But I feel good and hopefully I can get out there and get going."

Quin sprained his left ankle twice last season, once in a Week 2 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, when a teammate tripped over a pile of players and fell on his leg, and again in a Thanksgiving win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

He left the Eagles game in the first quarter and did not return, but managed to keep his "ironman" streak alive and start the final five games of the year.

In 2013, Quin played through torn ligaments in his ankle that eventually required surgery. He spent about four weeks off his feet after the season in an effort to rest the injury and avoid surgery, but said that inactivity contributed to his slow recovery.

This off-season, Quin spent time immediately after the season "prehabbing" for his surgery in a program designed by the tech startup company Peerwell. He did light exercise and resistance-band work to keep his ankle limber, stuck to his in-season nutrition and rest plans, and resumed running about four weeks after surgery, or two weeks ahead of doctors' estimates.

“I did my surgery, my ankle didn’t swell very much," Quin said. "I was back a lot earlier just from my standpoint than I was last time. Obviously, we’ll see what the trainers say and allow me to do when I get back, but it feels a lot better this year than it felt in 2014 when I had it done the first time."

Quin, who led the Lions with four interceptions last year and made 67 tackles while running his streak of consecutive starts to 100 games, most among safeties in the NFL, said this year's surgery was to clean up some "bone chips floating around in the joint."

"My ankle had some stuff in there and it was a good thing that we decided to do the surgery," Quin said. "But I do think the things that I was doing before the surgery allowed for the surgery to go as smooth as it went and allowed for the recovery. Because a lot of times when you put a scope in an ankle and clean some things out and do things of that nature, the swelling is the difficult part afterwards, trying to get all the swelling down.

"Once I got the padding and stuff off (after surgery), I told the trainer, I was like, 'Man, my ankle didn’t really even swell.'"

The Lions are counting on Quin to once again lead their secondary this fall, albeit with a few new running mates by his side.

Cornerback Rashean Mathis, who started most of the past three seasons, retired in February and will be replaced by Nevin Lawson, and Rafael Bush and Tavon Wilson signed to compete for the starting safety job opposite Quin.

Quin said he hasn't had the chance to work out with Bush or Wilson yet, like he did with James Ihedigbo after Ihedigbo signed with the Lions in 2014.

"That was just fortunate for me and Diggs because we lived in the same city and ended up working out at the same place," he said.

But he said he did talk to both Bush and Wilson after free agency and believes both can be an asset to the Lions this fall.

"We’ll connect more during the off-season program and get to know these guys and see," Quin said. "Hopefully, we’re good in the secondary again this year. We’ve been decent over the last few years and hopefully that can continue. But that takes a lot of work. There’s a lot of effort, a lot of energy and we have to communicate and be on the same page. That takes a lot of chemistry, hanging out. That’ll get started here pretty soon."

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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