Arizona Cardinals: Offensive line needs improvement

The Arizona Cardinals offensive line was one area of disappointment this past Saturday night

If there was an obvious area that struggled on Saturday night in the 22-19 loss to the San Diego Chargers, it was with the offensive line. Mike Iupati’s absence aside, the rest of the line did not play as fans or coaches expected.

From a disappointing performance by a rookie to a unsolved center position, there is still a lot to be determined. Let’s not even mention this was supposed to be one of the deepest areas of the team coming into the season.

First-round draft pick D.J. Humphries has been disappointing so far. Oh, and it’s not just in games either. Head coach Bruce Arians has said he lacks effort in practice as well.

Bruce Arians: D.J. Humphries’ ‘motor has to step up’ #CardsCamp http://t.co/tBZGrmr3GG pic.twitter.com/3F3MG31TVV
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) August 24, 2015

#Cardinals Cardinals GM Steve Keim said rookie OT D.J. Humphries has struggled with consistency. http://t.co/imRTVRAC4c
— NFL Weekly Lineups (@NFLWeeklyLineup) August 24, 2015

Arians on the sack rookie tackle D.J. Humphries surrendered: "Bad technique and bad effort." #SDvsAZ
— Darren Urban (@Cardschatter) August 23, 2015

Arians compared Bradley Sowell and D.J. Humphries: Sowell “shows up every day," Humphries shows up “once a week.” @AZCardinals #CardsCamp
— KDUSAM1060 (@KDUSAM1060) August 20, 2015

That’s definitely not stuff you want to hear about your team’s first-round pick. Did the Cardinals make a mistake at number 24? Maybe. I know he wasn’t their first choice at number 24. He’s not the only struggle though. Ted Larsen blew what Arians called a good game up until one play that did him in. Arians blamed a dumb penalty on Larsen’s low grade.

.@BruceArians on Ted Larsen at LG: "He had a really good game, blew it all with one dumb penalty."
— Fox Sports 910 (@foxsports910) August 24, 2015

Then there is the unresolved center position battle. A.Q. Shipley and Lyle Sendelin are still fighting for the starting spot. One thing is clear, only Bruce Arians will have a say in the job.

Arizona Cardinals Bruce Arians said QB Carson Palmer won't have a say in the center battle between A.Q. Shipley... http://t.co/rk9DZHXIMq
— Josh Weinfuss (@joshweinfuss) August 24, 2015

None of this is helped though by the fact that Bobby Massie will miss the first three games of the season thanks to suspension and then Iupati missing possibly as much as a month of the regular season due to knee surgery.

This weekend against the Oakland Raiders the line needs to do a better job of protecting Palmer. He took hit after hit, as did all the quarterbacks for that matter, this past Saturday night. The Cardinals can overcome many things but as we saw last season about the only injury that will completely derail them are injuries to their top two quarterbacks.

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