Arizona Cardinals: Mike Iupati put on the shelf

The Arizona Cardinals signed guard Mike Iupati to a five-year contract in March

Well, what would be an Arizona Cardinals preseason without a major injury or six. Chalk this one up to number two in the major category. After losing receiver Michael Floyd for an undetermined amount of time thanks to three dislocated fingers and surgery, now the Cardinals are faced with spending the next 6-8 weeks without new acquisition guard Mike Iupati.

Iupati had tests done on his knee on Wednesday and according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Iupati is expected to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery and miss 6-8 weeks.

If the Cardinals had any luck they’d have no luck at all. It is amazing how the injuries have started to pile up after what happened last season. The Cardinals have been hamstrung (pun intended) by injuries this training camp from running backs Andre Ellington and David Johnson to first-round pick tackle D.J. Humphries and linebacker Sean Weatherspoon.

Today they saw free agent acquisition defensive tackle Corey Peters carted off the field. His injury is unknown at this point. Then the news on Iupati comes down. He signed a lucrative five-year, $40 million contract in March. Now he likely misses all three September games and most likely we don’t see him until mid-October. That leaves Ted Larsen as your likely starter. Oh boy.

What once looked like a deep offensive line is now looking thinner. Let’s also not forget that Humphries was said by coach Bruce Arians last week to be lazy at times, in so many words. Also, let’s also not forget tackle Bobby Massie is out the first three games as well because of a suspension thanks to a DUI.

Running back Chris Johnson, just signed to a contract this week, now looks as if he’s a smart signing given the fact the offensive line is getting beat up, which in turn means the running backs will likely get beat up more. Iupati’s strength is run blocking. So, here we go again.

Also of note on Wednesday, the Cardinals released linebacker Daryl Sharpton and on Tuesday waived-injured Zack Wagenmann and signed safety Anthony Walters. It is an ever-changing roster once again. I’ll probably be right back…I’m sure the Cardinals lost someone else as I was writing this piece.

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