I'm pretty sure he was still hurt. After I posted that thread about the whole situation I researched high ankle sprains. They don't go away in 3 weeks (the rest he got) and playing on them just keeps extending the recovery window out further.
Was he simply playing on a high ankle sprain all year, which was what was obviously impacting his lateral quickness and tackle breaking ability? Or was there some sort of secret mental block or issue he was having for reasons we don't know? I dunno, but I'm an Occam's razor guy - I tend to go with the simplest answer, which is that he was hurt.