Conner hurt his knee three plays into the Cardinals’ preseason loss to the Broncos on Saturday.
The Arizona Cardinals will be without rookie offensive lineman Hayden Conner for some time. Head coach Jonathan Gannon told reporters Monday that the sixth-round pick “will miss some time” with a knee injury.
Conner, who started at center in the Cardinals’ second preseason game on Saturday against the Denver Broncos, left the game after only three plays, sustaining the knee injury. He was ruled out fairly quickly.
There was optimism for Conner. He played guard all through college at Texas but was learning center, and coaches believed he was a good depth option at both positions.
His injury creates possible complications for the 53-man roster, as the Cardinals must get the roster down to 53 player by next Tuesday afternoon.
Like second-year tackle Christian Jones last week, when he suffered a knee injury in the team’s preseason opener, who also will miss some time, the Cardinals will have to decide whether to carry them on the active roster (assuming they would make the roster) while they are hurt or whether to place them on injured reserve.
Teams can designate up to two players to return from IR without them having to first be on the active roster, but they would still have to miss at least four games.
If placed on IR without the designation, they would miss the season. That might be necessary, as Gannon did not specify how serious the injuries were.
We will know in a little more than a week how the Cardinals decide to play this.
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