Cardinals RB Wells ‘confident’ after offseason knee surgery
May 22, 2012, 11:40 PM | Updated: May 23, 2012, 12:41 am
Statistically, Beanie Wells had his best season last year as an Arizona
Cardinal.
He rushed for over a thousand yards (1,047) for the first time in his three-
year
NFL career, while his 10 touchdowns were one more than he scored in his
first
two seasons combined.
And to think he did all that feeling less than 100-percent.
Wells spent much of 2011 dealing with a painful right knee.
“I kind of knew early on in the season that at the end of the year this was
the
route we were going to have to take.”
The route taken was surgery.
Wells underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his knee in January.
“We just did a scope, clean some things up,” he said.
How extensive was the procedure? Did he have his meniscus repaired?
“Not
really meniscus,” he answered. “It was a little more complicated.”
Wells would offer no further details except to explain why surgery was the
decision made.
“Just to take as much pressure off the knee as we could, so we didn’t have
this
thing lingering into the season. We wanted to nip it in the bud this
offseason
and that’s what we’re doing.”
Head coach Ken Whisenhunt, who sat Wells because of his knee for the
regular
season-finale against Seattle, echoed those thoughts.
“The goal with Beanie is to make sure that we don’t struggle through like
we did
last year with that knee. I give him a lot of credit for fighting through that
and
having the kind of year that he did with his knee. We knew that we were
going
to have to do some things to try to get that knee better and that’s what this
is
all about.”
Wells joined his teammates Tuesday for the start of OTAs, but only as a
spectator. He spent his time on the field riding the stationary bike and
working
with the training staff.
“(The knee) is coming along, coming along pretty good,” said Wells. “No
setbacks at all. I’m feeling confident about being ready when the time is
right.”
The time, according to Wells, is not the middle of May but “come August,
when
we get into training camp.”
