Linebacker and special-teams ace Brendon Ayanbadejo made an appearance at the team’s facility Thursday and said his surgically-repaired left quadriceps tendon is making good progress.

"I’m a little bit ahead of schedule," said Ayanbadejo, who tore the tendon in the fourth quarter of the team's 27-21 loss to the New England Patriots on Oct. 4. "Every day, I find something new – a new sensation or a little bit more range of motion or a little bit more strength in there. So that makes it easy to be positive every day when you can wake up and you go to rehab and you’re a little bit better. It’s good to be back here at the facility. Everybody’s saying, ‘Man, you’re in a good mood. Your spirits are high.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s because I’m getting better every day.’ It’s great to be back around the guys."

Ayanbadejo, who was operated on by renowned sports surgeon James Andrews on Oct. 7, said the projected timetable to return is eight months.

"I’m not even supposed to be running until April or May and then from there, the recovery is going to speed up," he said. "It’s going to be really slow until then. The most important thing I can do now is let it heal and not do anything to damage the reconstruction in there. I’ve got to be a patient patient."

Ayanbadejo said he has been trying to help special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg, sitting in on special teams meetings and offering advice to his teammates. But when asked if he had earned a coach's whistle, Ayanbadejo smiled and shook his head.

"If I was a coach, I’d be more like ‘Hammer,’ Mark Carrier [who coaches the safeties]," Ayanbadejo said. "Sometimes we don’t know if he’s a player or a coach. He still has a pending fine in the NFL, so we kind of consider him more of a player rather than a coach."