Is the pressure on Beanie Wells?
Jun 14, 2012, 8:53 PM | Updated: 10:50 pm
Beanie Wells had a breakout season in 2011 for the Arizona
Cardinals.
The former first-round pick out of Ohio State ran for a
career-high 1,047 yards on 245 carries in 14 games.
He did a lot to dispel to the label that he couldn’t play
through pain, too, often excelling despite being bothered
by
a knee injury for a good portion of the season.
Wells had right knee surgery on January 24 to repair a
torn
meniscus and more, and hasn’t participated in OTAs or
minicamp, which concluded Thursday afternoon. With only
41
days between the conclusion of minicamp and the first
training camp practice in Flagstaff, there seems to be
growing concern about Wells’ readiness.
“He’s got to to work himself back into being ready, and I
think that’s an important thing,” head coach Ken
Whisenhunt
said Thursday. “We’ve done the right thing with Beanie,
as
far as the offseason about making sure he’s healthy and
trying to get him ready.
“He’s gotta bust his tail over the next few weeks to be
ready for training camp because we’ve had some guys look
good there.”
One of those guys is second-year back Ryan Williams, who
has been limited himself as he is returning from a
gruesome knee injury suffered during a preseason game last
August. Williams got three carries during 11-on-11 drills
during Wednesday night’s Fan Fest at University of Phoenix
Stadium in what was his first full-speed work since the
injury.
“That was a big hurdle (Thursday) night, so I expect him
to be ready to go in training camp,” Whisenhunt said.
“We’re not going to throw him in there and give him every
rep. We’re going to make sure we continue with the
process of getting him ready for the first game.”
Despite the Cardinals’ top two options at running back
recuperating from knee surgery, Whisenhunt feels good
about his personnel at the position.
“It doesn’t concern me right now, we’ve still got a number
of weeks until training camp starts,” Whisenhunt said.
“We’ve seen Beanie rush for over a thousand yards, we know
what LaRod [Stephens-Howling] is, we expect to have Ryan
back, so once we get to training camp and we get those
guys going, I don’t think I’ll have any concerns.”
Arizona Sports’ Craig Grialou contributed to this
report
