Cardinals loses 2 linemen to IR amid James Conner's murky injury status
Yesterday at 05:34 PM
After watching their favorite team’s playoff chances officially come to an end with a Los Angeles Rams win and their own loss in overtime to the Carolina Panthers, Arizona Cardinals fans have been hit with another blow in the news that two offensive linemen, Paris Johnson Jr., and Jonah Williams, have been placed on IR with season-ending injuries.
Now granted, at this point in the year, any trip to IR is season-ending when the player in question’s team is eliminated from the playoffs. But this news becomes all the more disappointing when you consider that James Conner has been on the injury report this week and is still very much questionable heading into Week 17, potentially leaving the Cardinals without one of their top offensive players, too.
Can the Cards hold things down with Trey Benson running the show? Sure, the third-round pick out of Florida State has played pretty well when given an opportunity to run the ball, averaging 4.6 yards per carry in 2024 in limited action. But still, that isn’t the point: the Cardinal, even eliminated, do still have two games left to play, and if they are down three key offensive players ahead of a showdown against the Rams, it’s probably not going to end too well.
Who knows, maybe Jonathan Gannon will galvanize his troops around the fact that the Rams are penciled into the playoffs and they aren’t, opting to play spoiler against a team they beat the snot out of all the way back in Week 2? Maybe outside fans will causally glance at the schedule Sunday night and wonder how the Rams got beaten by 21 points when they’re playoff bound and suddenly, Week 18 becomes incredibly interesting for fans in LA and Seattle.
Or maybe the only thing Cardinals fans have to look forward to is Trey McBride hopefully breaking his record of 92 catches and counting without a touchdown. If a McBride touchdown is the only thing that comes out of Week 17, or even Week 18, at least Cardinals fans can look forward to the 2025 NFL draft and having a slightly higher pick in the proceedings thanks to their late-season struggles.
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