A non-contact injury in the NFL usually never ends well. We’ve seen a number of players drop trying to make a play or make a football move a number of times and it almost never ends well. On Sunday, as the Arizona Cardinals defeated the New Orleans Saints 31-19, their starting running back Andre Ellington, crumbled to the ground suffering a non-contact injury.
As Ellington was helped off the field, many people feared the worst. At the end of the day, Ellington was diagnosed with a mild PCL strain and he is expected to miss up to 3 weeks. While Ellington sits and recovers, his backup – former rushing champion Chris Johnson – is expected to be the next man up for Arizona.
Following from ESPN.com.
Arizona Cardinals running back Andre Ellington has suffered a mild PCL sprain to his right knee and Chris Johnson will be the starter until Ellington is ready to return, coach Bruce Arians said Monday.
“Chris will be the starter. Everybody bumps up a spot,” Arians said.
Arians wouldn’t give an exact time frame for Ellington’s return but estimated it could be one to three weeks.
Before his injury, Ellington ran for 69 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries for an average of 5.8 yards per carry.
While Chris Johnson isn’t the same running back as he once was when he rushed for 2,006 yards in 2009 he could still be a valuable asset to this skilled Cardinals offense. He can catch out of the backfield and add a different dimension to Carson Palmer’s offensive output for Arizona. Hopefully for the Cardinals and CJ2K, he can get back to some of his old ways running the football.
