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Maxx Williams’ mustache looked pretty good, if the tight end did say so himself.

“I wish I could have grown it for you guys today,” Williams said. “It is nice.”

The tight end wishes that could be the biggest story surrounding him in training camp. But it’s not the look of his face the Cardinals want to know about, it’s the look of his right knee. The one thrown into the same field Williams labored on Monday to tear his ACL and end his season with four and a half games.

It was a surprise to see Williams lifted off the Physically-Unable-To-Perform list last week. Then another impressive step Monday when he participated in his first 11-on-11 work, albeit only for a few snaps.

He does not make predictions about being able to play in the preseason. He doesn’t make predictions about being ready for the season opener. He doesn’t make predictions at all.

“We’re not in a rush,” Williams said. “We still have two weeks of camp left, a few preseason games, a lot of time until September,” added, “Today is Monday? I’m thinking Tuesday.”

The Cardinals have their best tight end room since the franchise moved to Arizona. Zach Ertz is nursing a calf problem and rookie Trey McBride had a sore back for a few days, but those two are the ones expected to be there against the Chiefs Week 1.

Can Williams? The Cardinals wouldn’t mind an unexpected early return.

“He’s one of the best blocking tight ends I’ve ever seen or been around,” coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “He can obviously do things in the passing game that you saw last year. Coming off that injury, we’re going to be smart about how we use him and play to his strengths.

“I hope we can get those three guys on the field at the same time, at some point.”

McBride, who would take Williams’ spot as the group’s blocker in the short term, said he has learned a lot from Williams, both from the man himself and from watching a lot of film of the work Williams did last year before the injury.

Williams got off to the best start of his career, blocking and catching the ball. With his knee folded in sideways against the 49ers, “it was devastating for me in the moment.”

“For a few days I was completely pissed off, but what good was that?” Williams said before finally accepting his situation and going back to who he is – which is a good-natured, happy guy who cherishes his life.

“I’m still in the NFL,” he said.

His son — now 5½ months old — who was born in the offseason helped him through rehab, providing a distraction from the highs and lows of the attempted comeback.

His return to the practice field was ahead of schedule, but Williams noted that “we got to the point in rehab where I have to see if I can play football.” “

He doesn’t need to play in preseason games to be ready, and isn’t entering his eighth NFL season, but if it makes sense and the team agrees, he could see himself getting a few snaps at some point.

Williams also doesn’t want to talk about the Chiefs.

“That’s how I get ready today,” he said. “I don’t want to rush anything, get ahead of myself and then quickly go bad and look like an idiot Week 2 sitting on the bench because I wasn’t ready.”

There’s one thing Williams was ready to predict after Monday’s practice — that mustaches, waxed or not, don’t have a long shelf life. It will be shaved sooner rather than later, and almost certainly before the rest of his body is ready to play a football game.

“I’m pretty sick of it,” Williams admitted.

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