Kevin Kolb is back. After missing four weeks due to a bad case of turf toe complicated by a bone bruise in his foot, the Arizona Cardinals will have their prize quarterback taking snaps Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. At least that's plan barring any set backs and none are expected (which is why they are called "set backs").
"Yeah, I feel really good," Kolb said Wednesday after taking all the reps in practice for the first time since the injury. "Obviously, we'll see tomorrow how it feels after a full day, but I have full intention of playing."
Kolb was nearing ready to go last week, but the team had enough doubt about Kolb's foot they decided early on that John Skelton would get the start so he could get the full benefit of practicing with the first team.
As to be expected, Coach Ken Whisenhunt was his normally evasive self on such matters.
"The way it's gone this season for us with different guys, I'm not going to say anything like that today. We'll see how it is tomorrow," Whiz said, adding with about as much of a definitive answer as you will get from him, "But I said Sunday after the (Rams) game that we're a lot more optimistic that he'll have a chance to play this week."
Kolb is anxious to get back out on the field and understands how important it is for him and the entire offense to play well in these final five games of the season.
"We still don't feel like offensively we've played an entire game yet as a complete unit. That's a big goal of ours," Kolb said, adding the offense needs to figure out "who we are".
He did seem to indicate that with the way the defense and special teams are playing, the role of the Cardinals' quarterback is to not screw up.
"I think if you look back on a lot of games, if us as quarterbacks just did our part and just took care of the ball and played a good, solid game then we would have won quite a few of them. That's my mentality and that needs to be our mentality every time we hit the field. Just do your job (then) we'll take care of business."
It will be interesting to see if that becomes the new norm in Arizona. That model has certainly worked in San Francisco and Baltimore, but under Ken Whisenhunt the Cardinals have followed the "Kurt Warner Plan" of letting the QB make big plays to the star receiver.
That plan didn't work last year with the Derek Anderson Max Hall John Skelton monster and as the team has found out this year, it's not likely to work with Kevin Kolb any time soon. Fortunately, the defense is getting better and Beanie Wells has stepped up his game. That allows Whisenhunt to be more conservative on offense and let's the QB "manage the game", to use that infamous NFL phrase.
We'll see how that plays out, if at all. When you have No. 11 on your team, there's a lot of pressure to throw him the ball and a lot of comes from Larry Fitzgerald himself lobbying for targets. He does make a pretty compelling case.
Other Injury News
In other Cardinals injury news, TE Rob Housler (groin) was back practicing in full while TE Todd Heap remains limited. As expected Joey Porter (knee) and Kerry Rhodes (foot) are still out with no time table for return.
Beanie Well was limited in practice as has been the norm for him on Wednesday as he gives his knee more time to recover from the last game and prepare for the next one.