The struggling Arizona Cardinals’ offense sure could use James Conner on a short week as they prepare for Thursday night’s game against Seattle in Glendale, Ariz.
But the Cardinals (2-1) will have to make due without Conner, their stalwart running back, who went on injured reserve Tuesday with a foot injury suffered in a 16-15 loss to host San Francisco on Sunday.
“One of your leaders, a captain. You hate that it happened,” said Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon. “I feel terrible, but I know he’ll take the right attitude and bounce back.
“Picking up that slack, both the player and the person, we’re all going to have to collectively do it, truthfully. But that’s a bummer just like all of our guys who’ve gotten hurt. But just knowing what type of player and person he is it’s tough to replace, but we have to. So that’s what we’ll do.”
The Cardinals will have to rely on second-year back Trey Benson, who has a team-high 125 yards on 21 carries this season.
Conner, a Pro Bowl selection in 2018 and 2021, rushed for more than 3,700 yards and 38 touchdowns over the past four-plus seasons.
“JC is everything, means everything,” Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray said after Sunday’s loss. “I really don’t want to talk about it right now.”
Even without Conner, the Cardinals were within a last-second field goal of remaining undefeated.
They’ll have to rely on a defense that ranks tied for fifth in the league in allowing 17 points per game.
“I told the coaches, the sky’s not falling, there’s no panic in my game,” Gannon said. “I told the team that and I haven’t lost confidence. We lost a game. The things over the first three weeks that we haven’t done a good enough job — we’ve got time to correct it. But we’ve got to correct it.”
The Seahawks (2-1) have won two in a row after a season-opening loss to San Francisco. That includes Sunday’s 44-13 victory against visiting New Orleans as rookie Tory Horton returned a punt a franchise-record 95 yards for a touchdown and also made a TD catch.
“I know that he’s continuing to get better,” said Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold. “And I think that’s the biggest key as a young player is having that want to get better and understand the offense even that much more.”
The Seahawks also blocked a punt, the first time that happened to the Saints in 234 games.
“It was obviously a really good result, with the special teams and the defense and the way they set the tone for this game,” Darnold said. “It kind of led to us having really good field position all day.”
Seattle fullback Robbie Ouzts and offensive tackle Josh Jones, who both suffered ankle injuries against the Saints, were listed as non-participants in practice this week. All four Seahawks who missed last weekend’s game — running back Zach Charbonnet (foot), cornerback Devon Witherspoon (knee) and safeties Julian Love (hamstring) and Nick Emmanwori — were back in at least a limited capacity.
For the Cardinals, wide receiver Zay Jones (concussion), offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum (rest) and cornerback Will Johnson (groin) missed practice.
