Jamaal Charles comes off PUP list, joins Chiefs training camp

After three straight second-place finishes in the AFC West, the Kansas City Chiefs received a boost to their division title hopes when star running back Jamaal Charles returned to the practice field Tuesday.

After tearing his ACL in the fifth game of the regular season in 2015, Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles has finally returned to the practice field, per a tweet from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

It’s still unknown how much playing time, if any, Kansas City Coach Andy Reid will give Charles in the Chiefs’ remaining preseason games.

This is the second time in Charles’ career that he’s recovered from a torn ACL. After tearing the ligament two games into 2011, Charles bounced back by rushing for a career-high 1,509 yards in 2012.

In a blog post on March 1, Charles compared his second recovery to his first, which he went through when he was 25 years old.

"Now I’m married with two kids, and I’ve got a family I’ve got to worry about. So I can’t just think about me; I’ve got to think about my whole family. When I go to work, I’ve got to drop my kids off for school and go to work, go to rehab. So it’s definitely different this time because it’s not just me. It’s my whole family going through what I’ve got to go through."

While this is Charles first day of training camp, he hasn’t been absent from the Kansas City Chiefs’ facilities during the offseason.

"For the last month or so, I’ve been working out about five times a week in KC with the team trainers at the Chiefs facility. That’s been really good for me. This is actually the first time I’ve ever spent the whole offseason based out of Kansas City, and I’m really loving it.For one, it’s just easier because my kids get to stay in the same school with their friends, and we don’t have to switch them to a different school mid-year. That’s easier on all of us. But I also made it a point to stay here in KC to work out with some of my teammates, and go through the offseason process with them. It’s important to see where their minds are at, and to motivate each other."

Charles, who played college football at the University of Texas, normally resides in Austin during the offseason.

After starting the year 1-5, the Chiefs finished the season on a 10-game win streak, all with Charles on the sideline. The combination of backup running backs Spencer Ware and Charcandrick West, coupled with the sneaky-athletic of quarterback Alex Smith, kept the Chiefs’ running attack afloat. Kansas City averaged 147.6 rushing yards per game without Charles on the field.

With serious questions at quarterback for the Denver Broncos, who’ve won the AFC West in each of the past five seasons, the race for conference title is as wide open as it’s been in years.

With Ware proving himself as being more than competent as a complementary back after averaging a robust 5.6 yards per carry in 2015, Kansas City could be poised for its first division title since 2003 with newly discovered depth in the backfield.