Every week bones break and muscles rip around the NFL. We’ll take a look at the most significant injuries, and what happens next.
The Arizona Cardinals haven’t had an 8-1 start since 1948, when they weren’t the Arizona Cardinals at all. They were the Chicago Cardinals, and their only loss of the season was to the Chicago Bears. Strange times indeed.
This year there’s a jovial feeling about these scrappy Cardinals. They’ve dropped only one game despite losing John Abraham (concussion, then retirement) and Darnell Dockett (torn ACL), their primary pass rushers from last season. And their quarterback Carson Palmer recovered from an early-season issue with a nerve in his shoulder, looking comfortable again in Bruce Arians’ vertical offense.
The Cardinals felt so happy with their current state of affairs that they signed Palmer to a three-year contract extension. Our football overlords above didn’t approve…
The NFL’s best team is now rolling with a backup quarterback
Palmer crumbled in what’s often the worst way any football player can crumble: without contact. After fleeing from the pocket during a win over the St. Louis Rams yesterday he tried to plant and suddenly his knee buckled. After tests a torn ACL was confirmed Monday.
Usually losing a starting quarterback would be devastating. But Arians is a quarterback whisperer, and was already able to coax two wins out of his team with backup Drew Stanton starting when Palmer first missed time, one against the division rival San Francisco 49ers.
Are the Cardinals cooked without Palmer? Absolutely not. Can they still be title contenders, as Arians expects? Well, that rests with how often the pinpoint version of Drew Stanton shows up.
There’s no issue whatsoever with Stanton’s arm strength. As we saw on his 48-yard game-winning touchdown pass to John Brown Sunday, he can fit balls into tight windows and over the top of coverage with precision. He has 10 completions for 20 yards or more on only 101 dropbacks.
He just can’t do it consistently. Over his three starts and four game appearances (and 93 pass attempts) Stanton has a completion percentage of only 49.5.
That’s awful, but if he can keep connecting deep it might not matter, or at least it will matter less. He’ll often get quality field position from a defense that’s generated 19 turnovers (tied for second), and the same unit will keep scores close. The Cardinals are giving up only 18.9 points per game so far, the league’s fourth lowest weekly average.
Combine that with the offensive support Stanton has led by Andre Ellington and his 101.6 total yards per game, and things might be just fine for these Cardinals after all.
Between the Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles, two of the top three teams in the NFC will play the remainder of this season with backup quarterbacks (or most of it, depending on Nick Foles’ health). Football isn’t fair.
Branden Albert did some tearing too
The Miami Dolphins gave Branden Albert a $46 million contract this past offseason ($25 million guaranteed) because they grew weary of seeing their quarterback getting crunched. Over his first two seasons Ryan Tannehill was sacked 93 times, and he was set to break eventually.
Tannehill has still gone down plenty this season (a painful 20 sacks), but Albert was doing his part. He had allowed only three sacks and six hurries over 558 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, which also rates Albert as the league’s fourth-best tackle.
And now he’s gone.
Albert was another torn ACL victim Sunday during a loss to the Detroit Lions. The pleasant news is that part of the Dolphins’ offensive line rebuild over the offseason included using a first-round pick on Ja’Wuan James, who was playing right tackle and he’ll now slide over.
But the domino effect of Albert’s injury means patchwork elsewhere, and Nate Garner getting snaps at right tackle. That’s the same Nate Garner who’s been deemed worthy of only 19 NFL starts in now his sixth season.
The Dolphins’ playoff hopes could fade quickly down the stretch once again, along with Tannehill’s protection.
