Arizona Cardinals: Good news on injury front
By Scott Allen
The Arizona Cardinals have ruled out a couple of players for Sunday but one big one will return
The Arizona Cardinals announced on Friday that guard Evan Mathis will be available on Sunday and will play. That’s great news for the Cardinals up front as they struggled last week in Buffalo.
The Cardinals gave up five sacks and had a tough time allowing running back David Johnson to run free consistently in the 33-18 loss to the Bills.
Although good news came on the Evan Mathis front, there Cardinals did announce a couple of other players will be out against the Los Angeles Rams. Punter Drew Butler and defensive tackle Frostee Rucker have been ruled out Sunday afternoon.
Butler we knew wasn’t going to punt as the Cardinals signed Ryan Quigley this week to take on the punting duties. The Cardinals had hoped though Butler would be able to take care of the place holding duties on special teams.
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Butler though hasn’t improved enough to have his boot taken off his sprained ankle. Quigley now becomes the holder for kicker Chandler Catanzaro on Sunday.
The Cardinals also ruled safety Tyvon Branch and linebacker Kareem Martin as questionable. Martin has been out since being injured in the final preseason game against the Denver Broncos.
It was initially thought he could miss the first 6-8 weeks but by the sounds of it he may be closer to returning than not. The Cardinals could use his services.
The big question in all of this will be with Quigley and Butler. What happens if Quigley does a better job than Butler? Do the Cardinals stick with Butler? Many thought a couple of years ago Dave Zastudil was the better choice over Butgler but yet Butler won the job.
Hopefully there won’t be a lot of opportunity for the Cardinals to punt on Sunday against the Rams. It would be nice if they convert offensive drives into scores and not punts.