Arizona Cardinals right guard Will Hernandez ended his 2024 season with a knee injury on Week 5. Recovery encroached on his free agency, and he remained unsigned by the time he posted that he’d been “officially cleared” to play football on July 29.
About a week later, he re-signed with the Cardinals with more recovery time needed.
Second-year pro Isaiah Adams has started the first two games for Arizona, even with Hernandez available on the active roster.
But Hernandez’s status has been under the microscope as the run game has struggled to get chugging and Adams has gone through some hiccups on the right side of the line.
According to general manager Monti Ossenfort, there’s been only progress and no setbacks for Hernandez, whose seven years of NFL experience could be needed at some point.
“Will’s getting better every day,” Ossenfort told Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke. “In my chair, when you make those decisions, whether to put guys on IR, leave them on PUP, whatever, when they’re on those lists, they can’t actually practice.
“… When people come off those lists and return to practice, they’ve been down a long time. To say, hey, they come back and two days of practice they’re going to be ready for an NFL game, I don’t think that is really realistic either. … Will was close to practicing and was a guy we wanted to get back acclimated, back moving. He’s done that. Each week, he’s ramped up his time, ramped up what he’s doing.”
Until Hernandez’s return, the Cardinals will roll with Adams, who has three penalties and two pressures.
It was perhaps a silver lining that Hernandez’s absence this offseason — and limited abilities once he re-signed — gave Adams a chance to run with the first team. The third-round pick in 2024 was a training camp standout before the reality of the regular season hit him in the face.
“You haven’t seen Isaiah just flat out just get beat,” offensive line coach Justin Frye told reporters Friday. “But you’ve seen some young guy mistakes sometimes that you’d like to have reps back … you just need those at-bats and those swings, you know? And so for him, I mean, he comes, he works really hard, he understands the scheme.
“It’s now, how fast does that game slow down for him so that all those tools can be at 100% all the time and maybe not a little hesitation or a little uncertainty? … You’re at the driving range and you keep swinging, you’re hooking it, you’re slicing and how you fix it? And all of a sudden, now you think you’re out there like Rory McIlroy just ripping it down the middle.”
