ESPN Fantasy Football Blog

Posted by Tristan H. Cockcroft

Sorry to break it to you, prospective Beanie Wells owners, but your rookie breakout candidate might not be as primed to break out as you think.

According to the Arizona Cardinals' official Web site, Wells will begin training camp behind at least Tim Hightower on the team's running back depth chart and probably behind Jason Wright as well. That is because Wells missed the team's organized team activities thanks to a league rule preventing rookies from working with NFL teams until their schools are out of session; unfortunately, at the time of Arizona's OTAs, Ohio State had yet to host its graduation.

"He will get video from us that he can look at, but it's not the same as being out here and experiencing it and talking to teammates," Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "But we are doing the best we can to keep him up."

Wells, despite his low depth-chart status today, will be part of the Cardinals' rotation at the position during the regular season, but he'll need to impress more than your typical rookie to have any chance to overtake Hightower before Week 1. More likely, he'll occupy the backup role in that game and have to earn the starting role with good performance, which is well within his reach.

Fantasy owners, though, should take the report as a minor cautionary flag against Wells, who had been sneaking up fantasy draft boards to the level of low-No. 2/high-No. 3 running back status. Besides his current standing on the depth chart, he brings durability concerns and showed during his college days that he's more successful when given a healthy share of the work. We have Wells ranked 36th among running backs, and that seems about appropriate.

• Another day, another Brett Favre update. After a weekend full of rumors that the veteran quarterback had already agreed to a contract with the Vikings, Favre's agent, Bus Cook, denied such reports to the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Sunday. The Minneapolis Star Tribune also reported early Monday morning that Favre won't officially join the team for at least the next week because coach Brad Childress will spend this week on a fishing trip in Alaska. All signs continue to point toward Favre's eventual signing with the Vikings in the upcoming weeks, but we'll have to sift through the drama for many more days, apparently. Regardless of the result, I'm not expecting Favre to amount to much in fantasy leagues this year, at least beyond the level of matchups play or a deeper-leagues option.

• Buccaneers offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski told the St. Petersburg Times that he plans to heavily involve Kellen Winslow Jr. in his offense this season and likened him to former players of his in Green Bay and Atlanta, Bubba Franks and Alge Crumpler, respectively. In fact, the newspaper goes on to suggest that Winslow might take on, in essence, a "third-receiver" type of role, noting the team's lack of depth at wide receiver. "We have Kellen playing everything," wide receiver Michael Clayton said. "He's playing tight end, he's out wide. … His routes are amazing, man. He's basically a receiver. He knows everything about coverages." The Buccaneers' sketchy quarterback position might limit Winslow's upside, as might his injury history, but Jagodzinski's words are good to hear for those of you who consider Winslow a top-five tight end candidate. We've ranked Winslow eighth but recognize his upside; we just continue to recommend you draft a good backup if you pick him.

• It's still only late June, but according to reports thus far, the Bengals might have a winner in their sixth-round selection of running back Bernard Scott, who had been dogged by off-the-field question marks during his career at Abilene Christian. Signed to a four-year contract this past weekend, Scott apparently impressed the team during minicamp, the Dayton Daily News reports. The newspaper added that the rookie "was quick, fast, elusive and possesses the ability to take it the distance." He also received a good share of reps, meaning the Bengals might indeed regard him as the change-of-pace option to starter Cedric Benson whom they desired. Glowing offseason reports alone won't make Scott a late-round sleeper, but they should at least put him on your watch list. His stock could soar during the preseason.