Wells was injured a mere hours after inking his deal(David Wallace/The Arizona Republic)
Less than 12 hours after inking his first professional contract and taking part in his first training camp session with the Cardinals, Beanie Wells finds himself in familiar territory: on the injured list.
As you can imagine, the right ankle injury he suffered isn't doing a whole lot to quell the worrying in Phoenix regardless of whatever work he put in to report in great shape. All the Cardinal faithful see is a guy that was banged-up quite a bit in college, saw his draft stock slip as a result of further injury concerns and now, the unthinkable has pretty much happened.
An MRI revealed a sprained ankle, and though it isn't thought to be serious, you have to wonder how eager the Cardinals are going to be to rush Wells back into contact. Will they sit him a week? Two?
I'm not sure what it says that two of the Buckeyes we pull hardest for at the next level, Greg Oden and Beanie Wells, both have a long and storied history of injuries. Oden is presently fighting off the bust label and if Wells doesn't catch a positive break on the health front, he could very well be in the same situation a year or two from now.
The Other Guys
NFL training camp is pretty much in full-swing and several other Buckeyes have recently come to terms with teams (with one holdout):
- Malcolm Jenkins (1st/NO)
The lone holdout of the bunch, Jenkins has already missed five sessions and Saints fans are getting a bit antsy. Brian Cushing just signed and he went one pick after Jenkins in the draft, so a number framework is at least in place and the two parties could be close to coming to terms. - James Laurinaitis (2nd/STL)
Little Animal signed on Thursday and is in camp, competing with former Buckeye Larry Grant (and we're contractually obliged to point out Grant is the only man on the planet to have lost four-straight national championship games) among other backers in Rams camp.
- Brian Robiskie (2nd/CLE)
Robo missed seven rookie camp sessions, but finally signed with the Browns on Friday and is in camp. - Donald Washington (4th/KC)
Washington signed with the Chiefs on Thursday and at this point, the only rookie holdout for Kansas City is 3rd round pick Tyson Jackson of LSU. - Brian Hartline (4th/MIA)
It wasn't that long ago that some of us were wondering if Hartline would even make it in the NFL -- and he still might not -- but as of right now, he's proving a lot of us wrong. He signed way back on July 15 and is battling to stay off the Dolphins' practice squad (with good odds that he'll make the team). - Marcus Freeman (5th/CHI)
Freeman inked with the Bears way back in May and although it will be a challenge to earn snaps with Urlacher, Briggs and Tinoisamoa in Chicago, he's earning rave reviews from the hometown press. - Alex Boone (FA/SF)
Boone is making the best of his situation, sequestering himself in his hotel room to stay out of trouble and continiously earning praise from observers at 49er practice. As much as he frustrated us the last few years, we can't stop rooting for the guy to turn it around. Singletary will help with that. - Nader Abdallah & Todd Boeckman (FA)
Both undrafted players have bounced around a bit -- Boeckman stopped by Cincinnati early on -- but both were eventually signed to by the Jaguars only to be released within days. Nader might still have a chance to catch on somewhere, but you have to wonder if the opportunities aren't starting to slip away for Boeckman. For handling his demotion with grace, he'll be taken care of in Columbus should things not work out in the NFL.
Ray Small Death Watch
Thursday was the day summer grades were to have come out and since we didn't hear anything on the Ray Small front, we're going to go ahead and assume (quite possibly foolishly) that he'll be a Buckeye this season. The king of knuckleheads is still immensely talented and you can bet he'll be good for at least one or two more special teams touchdowns this year.
Imagining an Offensive Line
Ken Gordon sees an offensive line of Adams-Boren-Brewster-Cordle/Browning-Shugarts. We could definitely see that and can live with that. He fairly points out the many uncertainties facing this edition of the line (most importantly, will Adams and Shugarts step up into the spots waiting for them), but we're left to wonder who we'd rather see at the RG spot, Browning (who could be a serviceable guard) or Cordle (who has already somewhat proven himself).
