GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The closest thing Jordy Nelson did to real football during his first practice in 364 days came at the end of the session, when he ran some half-speed routes while fellow receivers Randall Cobb and Davante Adams acted as cornerbacks during a jog-through.
No wonder Nelson called it "hardly even a practice."
By unofficial count, earlier in Monday's practice Nelson caught 15 passes from Aaron Rodgers and the other quarterbacks at the far end of the field while the rest of the team went through a special-teams period.
Nelson appeared to run closer to full speed in that drill, although never against a defender.
Nelson said he was more concerned about his conditioning than either of his knees -- the reconstruction of his right knee after his ACL tear last year on Aug. 23 and his left knee that was injured earlier this summer during his rehab.
"I felt better today, honestly, than I thought I was going to wind-wise, conditioning-wise, running those routes being full padded and everything," Nelson said after practice, which lasted 1 hour, 47 minutes. "I thought that was a good sign. We've been working inside, so we've been getting the conditioning aspect in. But there's nothing like playing a game, and playing a game in Jacksonville Week 1, it's going to be hot down there. I'm sure everyone will be having to deal with it, and it'll be part of it."
Nelson said despite his extremely limited return, he believes he's on track to play against the Jaguars in the opener on Sept. 11.
"Absolutely. I don't think anything's changed," he said.
With only one more full practice scheduled this week before Friday's preseason game at San Francisco, it's unlikely Nelson would play against the 49ers. And typically, coach Mike McCarthy doesn't play his starters in the preseason finale, although it's unknown if he would make an exception for the Sept. 1 game at Kansas City to get Nelson some work before the regular-season opener against the Jaguars.
Last week, Nelson actually warmed up in full pads before the preseason game against the Oakland Raiders on Thursday, one day after he was activated off the PUP list.
"Obviously, we're progressing," Nelson said. "Obviously, we're going to see how the body reacts; that's how it is every time you do something, but it felt good out there. I don't know what the plan is for this weekend or next -- if it's going to be similar to what we did last week or if it'll be more. It's still in debate. It's a fluid situation of how everything reacts and how we feel.
"I mean, today felt great, so I'm sure tomorrow we'll do a little bit more. We'll see what the practice schedule looks like. Obviously, we'll eventually build into team periods. We should get plenty of that by the time Jacksonville comes around. We'll see what we do this week, but I assume, just based off normal progression, that next week we'll probably get into some competitive periods. And then Jacksonville, I don't have any reason to think it won't be a normal week of preparation."