If I were an LSU fan, based on the lack of definitive information out there on linebacker Arden Key, I’d be very nervous.

By now, you know the story. He finished second in the SEC last season with 12.0 sacks. With guys like Myles Garrett and Derek Barnett off to the NFL, Key should be the conference’s premier pass rusher this year.

However, he stepped away from the Tigers program for “personal reasons” — don’t expect to ever get a satisfactory answer as to why — and then underwent surgery on his shoulder. Coach Ed Orgeron still doesn’t know when Key is scheduled to return to Baton Rouge. If and when he does, he won’t be 100 percent.

His absence from spring practice remains a bit of a mystery. The injury complicates the matter even further.

In his opening comments last week at Media Days, Orgeron suggested that Key has been out of sight but certainly not out of mind.

“At the outside linebacker position, we feel that we have one of the best defensive players in the country if not the best defensive player in the country returning in Arden Key,” Orgeron said. “Outstanding pass rusher, outstanding player. We expect him to have a great season.”

Nobody doubts the ability he has at his disposal. In the 11 games he did play in 2016, Key had at least half a sack in nine of them. And in seven games against league competition, he had 7.0 sacks and was only shut out by Alabama.

Not only does Key already have an All-SEC selection under his belt — he was, of course, a preseason all-conference choice again in Hoover — but he has All-American potential, too. He’s a lock to go in Round 1 of the NFL Draft in April, and most of the experts believe he’s a Top 10 talent based purely on his measurables.

Still, his absence from spring practice remains a bit of a mystery. The injury complicates the matter even further.

Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

“Arden took the spring off for personal reasons, and we are going to respect that,” Orgeron (above) said. “He came back. He had to get some work done on his shoulder. We don’t know when he’s going to be back. We do expect him to be back and have a great season, and he’s in tremendous shape right now. He’s weighed 255-260 pounds and is a total team player.”

The SEC has produced the No. 1 pick in the draft at the defensive end position twice in the last four years. Both Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney were simply too gifted to ignore, even if their production in college was occasionally spotty.

After 8.0 sacks as a freshman and 12.0 more as a sophomore, Clowney recorded just 3.0 as a junior when he was supposedly a Heisman Trophy candidate. Garrett had 11.5 in Year 1 and a conference-leading 12.5 in Year 2, although he fell to 8.5 in Year 3. Like Clowney, Garrett’s down-to-down effort was questioned.

Similar to Clowney and Garrett, Key has enough upside at the next level to bypass every QB and be the top pick in the draft.

"Arden took the spring off for personal reasons, and we are going to respect that. He came back. He had to get some work done on his shoulder. We don't know when he's going to be back." -- Ed Orgeron

“He can be,” Orgeron said. “There’s no question. He’s a different player than Myles. I have recruited Myles. I have a lot respect for Myles. Garrett obviously is the No. 1 player picked in the draft. Can Arden reach that status and perhaps surpass it? Yes, he can.”

The problem for followers of the Bayou Bengals is that Clowney and Garrett set a bad precedent for Key. In hindsight, had neither of them played a down during their junior campaigns, they probably still would have gone No. 1.

Clowney in particular seemed to be on cruise control his last year at South Carolina. The rumor mill suggested that he had the wrong people in his ear telling him to prioritize the future millions he would make in the pros over winning games for the Gamecocks. Never did he resemble the player who almost decapitated that poor Michigan running back the season before.

If Key’s (below) rehabilitation doesn’t go smoothly, unsavory characters might advise him to go into protection mode.

Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

“We won’t know nothing for a while there,” Orgeron said. “This is going to be a rehab that’s going to take some time. We don’t have a time limit on it, but as far as everything we’re hearing, it’s going to be fine. I don’t know when he’ll be back or what time he’ll be back. He will not be (ready for camp), for sure.”

Garrett suffered an ankle injury that clearly hobbled him from time to time a season ago. Even if he did suit up for all 13 games, he didn’t look like himself in some and was relegated to little more than third-down duty in others.

Additionally, Garrett was criticized in the media — SEC Network’s Booger McFarland reiterated his on the Saturday Down South podcast — for not showing up in big games and failing to stop the run. But in the end, it didn’t matter. Both Clowney and Garrett went No. 1 and signed contracts guaranteeing them tens of millions of dollars.

Until I see Key in purple and gold again, I can't help but wonder if he's done with Tiger stripes entirely.

Some advocated for his former teammate, Leonard Fournette, to sit out his junior season entirely. It already looks like Key might not be ready for the opener Sept. 2.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that long,” Orgeron said. “I don’t think we can hold Arden that long. If he’s ready for the first game, he’ll be ready. But if he’s not, he’s not. I think it’ll be week by week.”

At this point, I don’t think it’s reckless to wonder if Key has already played his last game for LSU. The fact that we still have no idea why he was absent from spring ball forces us to speculate much more wildly.

Clowney essentially mailed in his junior year in Columbia. He went No. 1 anyway, made the Pro Bowl in 2016 and may finally live up to his billing after a slow start as a pro. Nobody can accuse Garrett of phoning it in last season in College Station, even if 4.5 of his 8.5 sacks came in one week against lowly UTSA.

Unfortunately, the cynic in me can’t help but wonder if Key has hung up his Tiger stripes once and for all, although the football fan in me hopes I’m dead wrong.