Beanie missed most of preseason – because (a) the coaches can trust Hightower and (b) given their predisposition to pass, haven’t relied all that much on the running game anyway – they could afford to sit Beanie until they feel they can trust him.

In the Cardinal offense, all it would take is a blown blitz-pickup assignment for the RB to get Warner killed back there, and we’ve already seen a blown assignment by Beanie result in a Warner pick. And then there are the fumbles.

All of this is rookie stuff that can be corrected; but you don’t fix everything with the flick of a switch. Sometimes it takes more than 3 games for a young player to get used to the speed and opposing trickery of the NFL. (Heck! Look at the growing pains DRC’s experiencing at the beginning of his second year!)

I think the Cardinal coaches are doing the right thing by working Beanie into the equation slowly, and that by the end of the season, Beanie will be performing well enough to make everyone forget the first 3 weeks.