Arrington's ready to run

BETHLEHEM - The last time J.J. Arrington sat in a locker room and put the pads on, he was with the Arizona Cardinals and could probably hear the pregame festivities in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium before Super Bowl XLIII.

Even with a torn meniscus suffered 2 weeks before, in the NFC Championship Game against the Eagles, Arrington wasn't sitting out. Surgery would wait another week.

Meniscus surgery was just the start of Arrington's misfortunes. He reached a 4-year, $10 million free agent agreement with the Denver Broncos following the Super Bowl, but the contract said he could be waived if there were concerns about his right knee.

There were.

That spring, Arrington needed season-ending microfracture surgery and was released. Denver brought him back this offseason before trading him to the Eagles for linebacker Joe Mays on Friday. Arrington never played a down in Denver, only participating in OTAs, minicamp and 1 day of rookie training camp.

"I was getting out of my car to go to the hotel and [coach] Josh McDaniels called me, he was like, 'Uh, I just traded you to the Eagles,' " said Arrington, who suited up in pads for the first time in 18 months during yesterday's morning session. "I was stunned. They brought me back last year. So I was shocked, but he told me he also needed another defensive special teams guy that could come in and play a lot. I understand the reason. It was a business move, so I'm not mad at anybody."

Now the Eagles hope bringing in Arrington pays off, though they will get a 2012 sixth-round draft pick if he does not make the team.

The long absence raises obvious questions of whether the 27-year-old running back can still play. For a while, he thought his career was over.

"The first 2 weeks I couldn't watch football," said Arrington, who said he grew up an Eagles fan in eastern North Carolina. "But then I started watching because I knew I needed to watch it because I knew I was coming back, and I had to still know what was going on in the league and watch my position and see what was going on."

The Eagles were confident enough to roll the dice on a player they'd considered before. (Also, Mays probably wasn't going to win a roster spot.) The Eagles contacted Arrington leading up to the 2005 draft, and inquired about him as recently as this offseason, he said; he also said he considered the Eagles before signing with Denver in 2009.

"You know his past, he's done a heckuva job," Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said.

Mornhinweg might see a little more of Arrington than he'd planned after losing backup running back Mike Bell to a hamstring injury yesterday.

"He's a dynamite player. He's very quick. He's got exceptional lateral movement, tends to catch the football well, runs good routes, so we're excited to have him," said Mornhinweg.

Arrington said the knee feels better each day, but microfracture surgery can be poison for NFL skill players. New Orleans running back Reggie Bush is one of the few running backs to still make an impact after the surgery, but his procedure was minor.

"He looks great right now; he's just a couple pounds over," Mornhinweg said after Arrington's afternoon workout. "He's going to work to get [his weight] down just a little bit . . . I'm sure he'll get that done real quick."

Arrington isn't ready to concede he might not be the same player he was with the Cardinals, especially now that he'll be playing in an offense tailor-made to his skills. The 44th overall pick in the 2005 draft, Arrington had his best season in 2008 when he accumulated 1,365 all-purpose yards and scored three touchdowns.

"You just have to keep your faith," said Arrington, who underwent the microfracture surgery in June 2009. "Medicine is getting so much better every year, I wouldn't be surprised in probably 2 more years microfracture [recovery] will probably be 6 months. That's how much better everything is getting. You never know."