ATLANTA -- The left arm of rookie quarterback and top overall draft choice Michael Vick got most of the attention as the Atlanta Falcons convened for a recent two-day mini-camp, but it was the left foot of linebacker Keith Brooking that was easily the second-most scrutinized appendage as the team concluded its final work before training camp.

And with good reason.

His $63 million contract aside, Vick may not even start a game his rookie season, the offense still under the stewardship of veteran Chris Chandler and not expected to be entrusted to the former Virginia Tech star until 2002 at the earliest. But the improvement of an Atlanta defense that ought to be better than its No. 25 ranking of a year ago could hinge on the stability of the tiny band of ligament holding two bones together on the top of Brooking's surgically repaired left foot.

During the mini-camp, Brooking was provided the most encouraging sign yet that the three-year veteran linebacker might be ready to put his worst foot forward on July 19, the first day of camp practices. Brooking, 25, was able to work out on consecutive days for the first time since sustaining the freak injury during an Oct. 1 defeat at Philadelphia, the foot finally able to tolerate the torque inherent with making sharp cuts and backpedaling into coverage.

While getting on the field for back-to-back practices might seem a baby step for some, Brooking regarded it as a quantum leap in his lengthy rehabilitation.

"I feel like I'm back on target now for camp," said Brooking, the team's first-round draft choice in 1998 and a player whose standout career at Georgia Tech created for him a natural fan base. "I'm still not exactly where I need to be, but it's more a matter of conditioning now than anything else. The foot is getting better but I have a lot of work yet to get back to where I was when I got hurt."

Where he was at that point was atop the Falcons tackle chart and on his way toward establishing himself as one of the league's best young weakside linebackers. Project his five-game statistics over an entire 16-game schedule, and Brooking would have finished his third NFL season with a career-best 115 tackles and four sacks. Perhaps more important, he would almost certainly have positioned himself as the heir apparent leader to middle linebacker Jessie Tuggle on a unit that figures to get considerably greener in the next few years.

Brooking is a throwback, a player who lists Dick Butkus as the veteran he most admired while growing up in nearby Senoia, Ga., a hitter who at Georgia Tech shattered at least a half-dozen facemasks by leading with his chin. The comparisons to some of the game's most physical hitmen are a bit flawed, however, since Brooking actually is noted more for his quickness and ability to run around plays and pursue from the backside. On the other hand, he is more than simply the finesse player some opponents view him as being.

Fact is, Brooking possesses many of the physical traits of man he replaced in the starting lineup, Cornelius Bennett. So sold on Brooking's potential was Atlanta management that Bennett was cut in the spring of 1999, just months after leading the Falcons in tackles as the team advanced to its first Super Bowl appearance. Brooking started 13 games in '99 and finished with 94 tackles and two sacks, and appeared poised in 2000 to improve on those numbers before suffering the injury.

"When we watched tape of them before our game, you could see him making plays from sideline to sideline," said Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. "He definitely was a factor in the way that we 'game-planned' for them. In the two or three games we watched on tape, he really seemed to be coming on strong, and he looked like a challenging guy."

	“	I feel like I'm back on target now for camp. I'm still not exactly where I need to be, but it's more a matter of conditioning now than anything else. The foot is getting better but I have a lot of work yet to get back to where I was when I got hurt. ”
		— Keith Brooking

The challenge for Brooking now is to somehow get back to the point at where his 2000 season ended prematurely, to regain as quickly as possible the level of play he enjoyed then, to make up for lost time.

The surgery on his foot was a delicate procedure performed by Dr. Michael Dillingham, the San Francisco 49ers orthopedics specialist, and was slightly complicated by the fact that five weeks elapsed between the injury and the operation. Because of the delay as the Falcons hoped that the foot would recover, the bones and ligaments had calcified a bit, and weren't as pliable as they otherwise might have been. Such surgeries, similar to those undergone by running backs Duce Staley of Philadelphia and Cleveland's Errict Rhett last year, are relatively new around the NFL.

Brooking pushed himself too hard early in the year, suffered pain and swelling in the foot, and was unable to run on it on consecutive days. Although he planned to participate in the team's 16 days of "passing game," Brooking didn't get on the field for a single workout, flying instead to the West Coast, where agent Gary Wichard arranged for him to work there with a physical therapist. Within a couple weeks, the foot showed marked improvement.

The first practice at mini-camp, Brooking's first full-scale workout of the offseason, resulted in some minor swelling but not enough to keep him off the field for the next day's session. There was a slight scare the first day when Brooking felt a sharp pain in the foot, but it was only some surgical adhesions tearing free.

Brooking, who should develop into a terrific blitz-coverage linebacker, has spent the past several weeks boning up on all the defensive changes being implemented by first-year coordinator Don Blackmon and working hard on his conditioning. His stamina has improved some, largely from doing running in a swimming pool and from incrementally stretching his weight room sessions.

Hardly as poor a team as their 9-23 record of the past two seasons would indicate, the Falcons should be far more competitive in 2000. The scope of their improvement, though, could be in part determined by how well Brooking, one of their most competitive players, comes around. For his part, Brooking has relegated the injury to the rear-view mirror.

"Maybe it will be in the back of my mind, but I know I can't afford to hold back at all," Brooking said. "I have to be ready to go full-speed from the first day of camp, and I think I'm just about there now. I know this much: I didn't go through all the stuff that I've had to do since the injury to not be ready to play again."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.