If you’ve ever played fantasy football, you know the kind of havoc Mike Bell can wreak upon a backfield. He can vulture carries at the goal line. He can steal starting jobs. He can rush for 100 yards and then, just when you’ve decided to grab him off the waiver wire, strain a hammy and disappear for weeks at a time. He’s tweaky. Very, very tweaky.
Now he’s property of the Eagles and you LeSean McCoy fans out there are justifiably terrified about how much of LeSean’s workload Bell will bogart. Well, it turns out it may not be much, because Bell has a new injury to his calf.
Bell, the running back who has been frantic to get back on the practice field and prove he deserves a role with the Eagles, suffered what he and Eagles coach Andy Reid said was a slight right calf strain yesterday, Bell's first day of all-out practicing since the hamstring injury.
"It's one of those things that just happened," Bell said. He said he felt his calf tighten jogging back to the huddle after a carry. "I'll be fine, man, I'm one of those people that's going to come back stronger . . . It could have been an Achilles', it could have been an ACL, but it's just a calf. That's always a blessing."
I dunno, Mike. I think I would have preferred the ACL tear, because then I definitely would be drafting LeSean in the fourth round. WHAT A STEAL!
Bell has played four years in the NFL and never played a full 16-game season. This calf injury is the second setback of his camp, following a dreaded hamstring strain. Bell is a decent back who can be productive with the right cast surrounding him, particularly in goal line spots. But he gets dinged a lot, and that’s bad news for a team that’s still trying to ascertain whether or not McCoy can handle being a fully featured back the way Brian Westbrook was.
If McCoy turns out to be legit, then Bell’s injury hardly merits a worry. But if McCoy is anything less than advertised, Bell’s injury brings the overall depth of this backfield into question.
Good thing Andy Reid only runs the ball five times a game.
