Sidelined by a ruptured Achilles’ tendon since last August, Galette spent last season – his first with Washington after five in New Orleans – recovering from surgery and rehabilitating. He had hoped to join his teammates for offseason practices. But Washington’s medical team wanted to err on the side of caution and give Galette additional time to further regain his strength and explosiveness.

So, Galette continued to work with trainers while his teammates practiced the last two months. This week he joined his teammates for pre-practice calisthenics, but that’s all the trainers and doctors would let him do.

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When training camp kicks off on July 28, Galette expects to have at last received his clearance to practice.

“I’m definitely going to be out there with them. I just can’t overcompensate like I did last year,” Galette said referring to last year, when he returned at full speed after missing time with a torn pectoral muscle. He thinks that pace played a role in his Achilles’ tendon injury.

“I have to be patient and ease my way into things, which is something I’m not used to doing. I’m just zero to 100,” he finished.

But he confesses that he doesn’t know how significantly his patience improved despite nearly a year of waiting for the tendon to heal.

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“The offseason and during the season has taught me a lot of patience, but we’ll have to wait to see when we’re out there how patient I really am, because I know I’m ready to go, even in walk-through, just seeing that ball snap, I’m ready to go,” Galette said with a laugh.

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Once the seventh-year veteran does return to action, Washington figures to boast one of the deepest pass-rushing units in the division featuring outside linebackers Ryan Kerrigan, Preston Smith and Galette. It remains unclear how the rotation or alignments featuring all three will work. But Galette, who totaled 22.5 sacks over his two most recent healthy seasons, expects plenty of action for the trio.

“Just try to keep us on the field at the same time as much as possible, try to either one of us in one-on-ones, and then obviously, you have [defensive end Chris] Baker on the field at the same time,” Galette said. “I’ve never had a guy like that, that’s dominant on the interior like that. To come off the edge and have the quarterback not be able to step up, that’s awesome.”

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But – in a possible sign of that newfound patience – Galette cautions that the Redskins still have much work ahead of them to ensure the pieces fit together properly.

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“I feel like the sky’s the limit, but we’ve got to go out there,” he says. “We look good on paper, but wasn’t that the Yankees that had a team one year that was well-stocked and they didn’t even make the playoffs? So, you can look good on paper, but we’re still going to have to go out and work, but I know as far as the camaraderie that we have, that’s a plus.”