Less than a year after tearing his Achilles, Saints defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins was back on the field in a regular season game when he made his debut in Sunday’s win against the Dallas Cowboys.
“It felt kinda weird,” Rankins said. “I’m not even going to lie. It’s been a long time since I played real, real football. It was kind of surreal coming back to the same place everything happened.
“Once that first contact happened, that first play, it’s football at that point.”
Rankins admitted he was “still a little rusty” but that didn’t stop him from playing in 66 percent of the Saints’ defensive snaps.
He said he liked a few of his plays but overall felt “everything could be better.”
Rankins tore his Achilles in the Saints’ playoff win against the Philadelphia Eagles in January. He was in the midst of one of his best seasons as he’d tallied a career-high eight sacks. He returned to practice late in training camp and said his goal was to be ready for the Saints' matchup against the Cowboys.
Rankins said now he’s focused on getting back to the form he had in 2018.
“I’ll be back to who I was — doing shimmys and getting sacks and doing all of that,” Rankins said. “I’m not worried. It’s just gonna come with time and come with reps.”