Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

New York Jets wide receiver suffered an injury last season that has forced him out of most of this year’s activities. The timetable for his return has been all over the place. Some speculated that he could miss the entire season, Holmes told friends he could sit out the first four weeks of the season.

Holmes however wants to get back on the field as soon as possible.

Team insider tells me Santonio Holmes (LisFranc) “desperately” wants to get back ASAP. Working vigorously every day. Team happy w/work ethic

— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) August 12, 2013

Rich Cimini of ESPN New York contradicted this report yesterday when he asked: Is his Lisfranc injury still healing or is he milking the injury to protect his self interests?

The scenario Cimini proposes is that Holmes is taking his time coming back to protect his personal interests, mainly that with a $10.75 million cap number in 2014 he could be cut and this will essentially be a contract year for him.

If he is re-injured or plays poorly due to the injury it could effect his worth next offseason when he is looking for a new contract.

“Some people say they wouldn’t be shocked to see him in October at the earliest,” Cimini says. “The minority opinion is that he’s dragging it out to avoid training camp, and that he’ll crank it up in a couple of weeks to get ready for the season opener. With him, you never know.”