Jason Burgos
The Arizona Cardinals offense suffered a major injury to a key player last week that will now mean being without a top weapon for “multiple weeks.”
To start the 2023 NFL season, the Arizona Cardinals and their offense were immediately at a major disadvantage with their best player, Kyler Murray, expected to miss much of the season as he continues his recovery from a torn ACL suffered last season.
Related: Kyler Murray reportedly facing uncertain future with Arizona Cardinals in 2024
While they are ranked 31st in our current NFL offense rankings, the Cards’ offense has been decent with Joshua Dobbs leading the unit and they even were key in an upset Week 3 win over the Dallas Cowboys. What has helped the offense be more competitive than some expected heading into the season is a rushing attack that is the sixth-best in the league heading into Week 6.
- James Conner stats (2023): 68 rushes, 364 yards, 2 touchdowns
James Conner expected to miss multiple Arizona Cardinals games
But the running back corps. will unfortunately be without its RB1 for the foreseeable future. On Tuesday morning, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter broke the news that “James Conner is expected to miss multiple weeks with the knee injury he suffered Sunday vs. the Bengals and he now is a candidate to be placed on injured reserve, per sources.”
Later in the day, NFL Media insider Tom Pelissero revealed that “The #ardinals are placing RB James Conner (knee) on injured reserve, per source. He’s out at least four games.”
Conner leads the Arizona Cardinals in rushing yards this season (364 yards) and is averaging an outstanding 5.4 yards per carry. He is also eighth in the NFL in rushing yards after five weeks. The team will now have to lean heavily on backup running back Emari Demercado who is only averaging 3.4 yards per carry.
The team’s second-leading rusher in 2023 is their QB, and wide receiver Rondale Moore has the third most, which shows their success this season has likely been a product of the scheming of offensive coordinator Drew Petzing.
James Conner is a two-time Pro Bowler who is off to one of the best starts of his seven-year career as he is averaging some of his top numbers yet in yards per carry and per game this season.
The Cardinals face the Rams on Sunday, followed by matchups with the Seahawks, Ravens, and Browns.
