Rant time

[schutd]

Wasnt there a recent Somers article that hinted at the possibility he had a microfracture?

That would suck.

 

[Pariah]

Yes Beanie had a 1000 yards 1/4 of which came in one game.

Shane, don't you usually call people out for saying things like "well, if you take out his longest run..." when they're trying to qualify stats? Aren't you doing the same thing here?

 

[Cardiac]

Somers or Urban actually intimated that it was a microfracture procedure. I don't know how anyone but real haters can question the toughness of Beanie Wells after last year.

I for one don't doubt how tough he is, last year proved that for me. He isn't very sturdy so far.

Raynoch Thompson was tough but kinda fragile as well. He would play with a leg falling off but he always had some kind of injury.

I for one hope that Ryan Williams becomes the starter simply because that means he would have beaten out Wells so we just got better at RB.

I hope Massie beats out Bridges etc because it means we got better at RT.

I hope Flemming beats out Toler/Gay/Jefferson because it means we just go better at CB.

For those who would say Williams starting over Beanie is to the infamous Whiz hates certain players......I think Beanie has Whiz's full respect after playing banged up last year.

What Beanie needs to work on:
Blitz pick up.
Receiving skills.
Getting tripped up over low arm tackles.
Slipping and falling when trying to cut back.

There are countless quotes from players and media about how impressive Williams was during TC last year. He had veterans drooling over some of the moves he made. The entire bench emptied and was hugely bummed when he went down in that preseason game.

I don't have him starting over Beanie this year unless (when) Beanie gets knicked up and because he won't be fully recovered this year, or ever.

 

[chickenhead]

I think sometimes we underestimate how banged up running backs on other teams are as well (except for the ones on our fantasy teams...).

Beanie does seem injury-prone, but I thought all in all he was a reliable back who could really help dictate a game last year. It was a nice change!

 

[Duckjake]

I think Beanie is actually one of CKW's favorites. Seeing the debacle that the 2010 offense had become Whisenhunt protected Beanie by limiting BWells' carries to 47 total the last 8 games of the season. Saving him for 2011 and beyond.

It's exactly the kind of thing an Engineer would do.

 

[Crimson Warrior]

i think Beanie's got above average talent and could be a very good RB, but he's just so damn injury prone. that's where most of people's problems lie with him IMO.

that being said, I don't believe he's got "elite" skills.

Nobody's a bigger homer for wells than me, but I agree with cheese's first point here.

We need a feature back that can be at 100% for at least 75% of the time. Beanie hasn't given that to us yet. If he can't stay healthy, we need to find a back that can.

On the other hand, I get pretty fired up when he starts running over people. He's freaking vicious.

I think it's 50/50 whether or not he has a breakout year this year. Put me down as full on the Beanie Wells bandwagon.

 

[Jetstream Green]

I'm sorry but I don't get all the disrepect(I hate that term) that Chris Wells gets around here. What does the guys have to do to be appreciated for the RB that he is.

1000 yard rusher.....check
double figue TD's'.....check
played through pain.....check

I don't what more people want out of him. He had an injury plagued second year and that was the only time he has not been a very good RB. I'm not putting him at the top of the class but people on here are clamoring for Ryan Williams to start. WHY? Beacause he had a couple nice runs in meaningless pre-season games?? Because there were reports that he was good in practice??? We heard the same things about Stephen Williams at WR and look how that translated when they started playing for real. Throw in the fact that he's coming off one of the worst injuries a RB can have and it's even more mind boggling.

Wells is the best RB the Cards have had simce Ottis Anderson and because he gets banged up a little bit people are quick to toss his ability aside. Guess what, RB's get dinged up and miss games. I rememeber last year someone tried to argue he'd never be an elit back because he didn't score on a 76 yard run. What is about Wells that makes people want to knock him and not give him any credit? Then you have people using the argument that he isn't a good blocker. Of course the main thing you want of your feature RB is blocking ability, not running ability .

If Whiz wanted to, he could make Wells into a 1400 yard back and 12+ TD's but when you have Larry Fitzgerald on your team, you try and get him the ball as much as possible, and with our inaccurate QB's that takes more attempts than normal. I don't blame Whiz for that one bit. But that doesn't take away the talent and running ability we have in Wells at RB. Wells will put up another 1000 yards and 10+ TD's and then be gone in a year and people wil be okay with it because Ryan Williams may have a nice run in week 13, or something like that. Then we can go through another cycle of RB's like Johnnie Johnson, Tim Hightower(who some incredibly liked better than Wells also), a 64 year old Edge, Marcel Shipp, and JJ Arrington, maybe then people will appreciate what we have in Wells.

This isn't to bang on Williams, I hope he plays well, but we have a feature RB in Wells and people are quick to throw him to the curb. I'm not saying he's a top 5 RB, he could be but isn't used that way, but he is still a feature back that teams need to account for and the Cards haven't had too many of those throughout the years.

Rant over.

agreed

 

[artp]

If Qb play is a little better and OL play is a little better, I think Beanie will be an elite back in 2012.

 

[Snakester]

I like our 1+2 punch of Wells and Williams. I hope both will stay healthy this year. I still think OJ Anderson was the best RB we ever had though.

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

I think Beanie is actually one of CKW's favorites. Seeing the debacle that the 2010 offense had become Whisenhunt protected Beanie by limiting BWells' carries to 47 total the last 8 games of the season. Saving him for 2011 and beyond.

It's exactly the kind of thing an Engineer would do.

I agree in that I think Wells became one of "Whiz's guys" last year by playing tough.

Shane weren't you the first to argus the counterpoint when someone would mention THT's YPC average was skewed because he had a would have 1 long run then 6-7 one yard carries? Can't have it both ways.

I have a hard time believing Wells had microfracture. The only reason that is out there is because Urban half jokingly asked Wells and Wells didn't give him a response. The Cards would know if he had a major surgery and would have addressed it. They have had all off season to do something and didn't. It's not like they are in season when hiding/diminishing the severity of injuries could be an advantage for the team.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

Man, that's a lot of parsing. So if you take away half of the 32 starters in the NFL--and 12 of the top 20 rushers in the NFL last season--Beanie ranks 8th among the remaining 16 starting running backs in the NFL in terms of average, and 6th in terms of yardage.

So, basically, he's a legitimate starter but clearly not an elite player. He only had four fewer TD runs than Cam Newton okingCBus:

Man, that's a lot of parsing!

 

[Stout]

I like our 1+2 punch of Wells and Williams. I hope both will stay healthy this year. I still think OJ Anderson was the best RB we ever had though.

I don't know if I like that 1-2 punch, because Williams was hurt, we don't know if he'll ever come back healthy again, and oh yeah, he's never played a down of real, professional football. He may not have had what it takes to begin with. I hope he ends up good, but I can't say he's assured to be so.

 

[Shane]

Somers or Urban actually intimated that it was a microfracture procedure. I don't know how anyone but real haters can question the toughness of Beanie Wells after last year.

Being tough and being fragile aren't the same thing. Beanie is fragile. I will wager that he is ailing from some injury by week 8 of the up coming season.

 

[Shane]

Shane, don't you usually call people out for saying things like "well, if you take out his longest run..." when they're trying to qualify stats? Aren't you doing the same thing here?

I agree in that I think Wells became one of "Whiz's guys" last year by playing tough.

Shane weren't you the first to argus the counterpoint when someone would mention THT's YPC average was skewed because he had a would have 1 long run then 6-7 one yard carries? Can't have it both ways.

I have a hard time believing Wells had microfracture. The only reason that is out there is because Urban half jokingly asked Wells and Wells didn't give him a response. The Cards would know if he had a major surgery and would have addressed it. They have had all off season to do something and didn't. It's not like they are in season when hiding/diminishing the severity of injuries could be an advantage for the team.

I get what you two are saying. And in a small way I agree. However the difference is IMO is that 1000 yards isn't even considered all that impressive anymore during the 16 game era. Its still considered the benchmark to attain for a good RB I agree. Usually means that a RB has had a good year and been consistent. With Beanie I don't see much consistency. And still only really 1 "good" year in 4 and 1 OK year. IMO while he proved he can play tough. He still has to be more consistent and with his injury issues I consider it highly unlikely to happen. Prime example of what I mean:

He started out on fire and seems like he was going to have a monster year.

week 1 90 5.0 YPC
week 2 93 6.6 YPC
week 3 138 5.1 YPC

Then the mediocre train sets in:

Week 4 60 3.0 YPC
week 5 42 3.5 YPC (Got hurt in this game) Was diagnosed as bone bruise.
week 6 83 3.8 YPC
week 7 20 2.0 YPC
week 8 62 2.7 YPC
week 9 33 4.1 YPC
week 10 228 8.4 YPC Without this the rest of year past week 3 is pretty bad.
week 11 67 3.4 YPC
week 12 27 1.8 YPC
week 13 51 3.4 YPC
week 14 53 3.8 YPC

I challenge you to try and find me another RB in the league with running #s on a week to week basis that mediocre to bad. He had 7 games with 3.5 YPC and under which is pretty pedestrian in the NFL. 6 games under 60 yards.

Im not clamoring for Ryan Williams to start. I think Beanie is the best RB on the roster right now and Im OK with him as the starter. I think Beanie is decent I guess is the best way to put it. But I don't think anyone was so excited when we drafted him just because we thought he was going to be decent. We thought we finally landed our legitimate stud RB. IMO Beanie isn't that. He's just a good player whom all teams need. But certainly nothing special or someone to be overly appreciated. But I guess thats what being an Ohio State homer will do to you If he could ever just stay healthy and put together a coupe more thousand yard seasons like all the good successful RB's seem to do. Thus show the consistency. I'll change my IMO.

 

[Duckjake]

I challenge you to try and find me another RB in the league with running #s on a week to week basis that mediocre to bad. He had 7 games with 3.5 YPC and under which is pretty pedestrian in the NFL. 6 games under 60 yards.

Tim Hightower. 32 games out of 53 career games at 3.5 ypc or less. 24 games at less than 3.00.

Both our guys for most of those.

It's been the story of our run game for a long time. A couple of good games followed by several really poor games. Edge had 7 games under 3.5 when he rushed for 1222 yards in 2007!

 

[kerouac9]

Being tough and being fragile aren't the same thing. Beanie is fragile. I will wager that he is ailing from some injury by week 8 of the up coming season.

How are they not the same thing? Beanie plays hurt pretty much every year, but so does Steven Jackson. Is Steven Jackson fragile?

Frank Gore averaged 3.7, 2.8, 3.7, 7.2, 3.6, 3.6, and 1.3 YPC last year from Week 11 to Week 17. Is he fragile? From weeks 12 to 17, Michael Turner averaged 3.2, 3.1, 3.6, 3.2, 3.5, and 10.1 YPC (the last against a Tampa Bay team who had completely surrendered). Fragile?

Every player in the NFL is playing through some pain from at most mid-season onward.

 

[Russ Smith]

It wasn't Buddy. According to rumor Tobin was forced to do that. Had to make room to pay SiMEon Rice.

Thomas Jones was nothing but a malcontent when he was in Arizona. He pulled a LeShon Johnson and ran for 173 yards in one game and never really did much else. The same season he got the 173 he had a game with 11 carries and gained 10 yards.

hearst was financial as you said. that and I think McElroy had played well enough in limited work in preseason that they decided to drop Hearst and use the money on someone else.

Pretty sure it was Lectric Leeland who became trip over my own shoes Leeland unfortunately.

 

[Gee!]

Cbus.. I think alot of people are living in what if land still.. They see Adrian Peterson and compare all our RB's to him.. Its a deep rooted regressed anger that they dont actually hate Beanie.. They just hate that we chose Levi over AP..

I am a Beanie fan though.. You know we were leading the charge on draft day to draft Beanie from the first selection all the way till we finally did in the game chat..

 

[Duckjake]

hearst was financial as you said. that and I think McElroy had played well enough in limited work in preseason that they decided to drop Hearst and use the money on someone else.

Pretty sure it was Lectric Leeland who became trip over my own shoes Leeland unfortunately.

It was purely financial. Tobin even says in the linked article he wasn't comfortable with his two young running backs.

Although I had forgotten that Hearst fumbled so much. Whiz would have gotten rid of him just for that.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...agyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O-cFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5292,3288658

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Beanie is a fantastic buy low fantasy football candidate. Even with Williams he will get the bulk of the work inside the 10 and should have no problem surpassing the 10 TDs he had last season, regardless of how Ryan Williams works out.

Beanie's main weakness is his hands. It is what keeps him from being elite and being a 3 down back.

 

[Chopper0080]

My issue with Wells is his limitations keep overshadowing his strengths. It isn't fair, but just the way he comes off to me. His tendency to get tackled in the open field by a single defender overshadows his ability to be very physical at times. His inability to break away from defenders overshadows his ability to get into the open field. His inconsistency catching the ball out of the backfield overshadows his feel for the open gaps in the defense to get open. His tendency to fumble overshadows his ability to score touchdowns. His struggles against top teams overshadows his ability to dominate some games.

I understand none of these are very fair, but this is why I see Wells as a temporary player. In an offense where carries are limited because of an overall desire to throw the football, you need a runningback who can make single defenders miss in the open field, break away and score on long runs, consistently catch the ball out of the backfield, limit fumbles, and be productive against the majority of teams. To be honest, I don't see Wells as that guy in any way, shape, or form.

 

[TigToad]

I really like Beanie. Last year showed me a lot about his toughness and ability. I am very concerned about injury, but it is fair to be concerned about injury with any NFL running back right now. I hope Williams is a beast as well, it would give the Cardinals a double threat at tail back AND insure for injury with either of them.

Look at how long it took Whiz to start Beanie over Hightower, I don't think Williams has a chance to be the starter even if he has an injury-recovered pre-season. Best case scenario (for Williams, the Cardinals, and probably even Beanie) is that they split time and both do very well.