Cardinals to be without top offensive lineman vs. Lions on Sunday

This week has gone from bad to worse for the Arizona Cardinals with the addition of Rodney Hudson to the team’s Reserve/COVID-19 list.

It was a debilitating loss on Monday for the Arizona Cardinals, losing their star wide receiver in DeAndre Hopkins, having an injured James Conner, and now this. Rodney Hudson is not expected to play on Sunday against the Detroit Lions after he was been placed on the team’s Reserve/COVID-19 earlier this week.

There are three new ways that a player can return, and those were detailed in a memo that was recently sent to NFL clubs to help speed up the return process for these players. That can be seen here.

Hudson’s absence has already been felt when he was out for a few weeks earlier this season. Yes, Arizona will face the league’s cellar dwellers in the Detroit Lions on Sunday. But even that is not a given win.

The Arizona Cardinals offense is severely limited without Rodney Hudson

If there’s anything clear, it is that Hudson makes the Cardinals’ offense go. Max Garcia is expected to start at center in place of Hudson, and when this happened earlier this season, Garcia littered the field with bad snaps and lousy blocking.

This would have been a perfect time to keep the “offensive line swiss army knife” Lamont Gaillard. The release of Brian Winters also looks terrible right now too.

Gaillard was released by Arizona general manager Steve Keim earlier this year and he was a solid performer in the 2020 season when Mason Cole was out due to injury. Gaillard played both guard and center, a skill-set that could be used by the Cardinals right now.

This recent COVID-19 outbreak has been a bummer for the NFL. Going nearly an entire regular season without any repeats of 2020 was sublime and blissful, only for this virus to rear its ugly head again. Let’s hope that every player, coach, and personnel member for every team all return unharmed from this terrible thing.