2011 Fantasy Football Inside the Numbers | Beanie Wells
If you look at the final numbers of Arizona Cardinals running back Chris “Beanie” Wells for 2011, he did pretty well. He cracked 1,000 yards for the first time in his career, found the end-zone an impressive 10 times, and averaged a respectable 4.3 yards per carry.
However, with any guy that has what appears to be rising fantasy stock, you often need to take a closer look to see what kind of player they really are. With Wells, a closer look is actually quite startling.
And his owners should know exactly what I’m talking about.
While Wells’ season numbers are solid, his game-to-game weekly production was severely lacking. He blew-up in two different games on the season, with both games dramatically inflating his production.
The first happening was a huge three-touchdown effort in week four that had many praising the skies and saying “I told you so” about Wells being a legit fantasy back. I remember not being too sold at the time, and sure enough, Wells went on to score just five more touchdowns over the next 12 games.
Of course, he wasn’t just a touchdown guy. He still cracked 1,000 yards, and this was without even playing in week 17 due to knee soreness. However, when week 12 rolled around, the hype train came right along with Wells for the second time in 2011, as he busted out for an insane 228 rushing yards on 27 carries.
Some people were back on the bandwagon, claiming Wells was “for real”. Others merely said he played the Rams that week. They were right.
From week 13 to week 16, Wells totaled 199 rushing yards.
Granted, he was nursing a sore knee and fighting through pain down the stretch, and his quarterback play was sketchy or constantly changing, but the proof is still in the pudding.
Oh, and that huge three-touchdown day? That came against a weak Giants run defense.
That’s right, Wells’ two best games of the year totaled 366 yards and four total touchdowns, and came against two of the worst run defenses in the league (at the time for the Giants). In other words, roughly 37% of his yardage and literally 40% of his touchdowns came in just two games.
In his other 12 played games (he missed two starts due to injury), Wells piled up less than 700 yards and six touchdowns.
So, what did we learn from Wells in 2011? Outside of displaying some toughness by playing through the injury, we found out he still gets hurt, and that his best performances came against cakewalk matchups. Not just that, but against everyone else for 12 games of the year, he was merely average.
