In addition to how the Arizona Cardinals’ edge-rushing group has been affected by injuries, the defensive line has also taken some enormous hits.
It began when promising rookie Darius Robinson injured his calf in an Aug. 22 practice and has yet to get on the field.
That was followed by season-ending injuries to Justin Jones (triceps in Week 3) and then Bilal Nichols (stinger in Week 6). The Cardinals will face the Dolphins Sunday with a line consisting of rostered players L.J. Collier, Dante Stills, Naquan Jones and Khyiris Tonga because Roy Lopez (ankle) has been declared out.
Ben Stille will likely be elevated again from the practice squad and there’s a possibly that will also happen with P.J. Mustipher if they want six players available.
Despite the limited resources against the Chargers with Lopez playing only 20 snaps (30 percent) before aggravating his injury, the Cardinals often used only two D-linemen, yet limited the running backs to 52 yards on 19 carries with workhorse back J.K. Dobbins totaling only 40 on 14 attempts. Ten of Dobbins’ runs were for two yards or less.
With a possible 198 snaps available for three defensive linemen, they played only 75.8 percent of the snaps, the second-lowest of the season. In the 41-10 rout of the Rams in Week 2 when they went away from the run, the linemen played 72.4 percent of the snaps. The other five games were 91.8 (Packers), 90.3 (Commanders), 89.2 (Lions), 87.0 (49ers) and 83.9 (Bills).
Tonga is expected to have a larger role with Lopez out. Prior to Monday, Lopez’s percentage of snaps were 37, 42, 60, 71, 56 and 52. In Tonga’s six games (he was inactive against Washington), the percentages were 26, 29, 21, 30, 36 and 21. We’ll see how much that increases Sunday.
Jones has been effective since returning to the team Sept. 25, while Stille was signed to the practice squad on Oct. 3 and played his first game of the season Monday night. Each had a sack and tackle for loss against the Chargers, while Jones had two quarterback hits and Stille one.
Asked about Jones and Stille, head coach Jonathan Gannon said Tuesday. “I liked where the snap counts were for all six guys. I thought (line coach) Derrick (LeBlanc) did a really good job of kind of putting those guys in certain spots, depending on the front structures and the personnel groups, to give them a chance to make some plays in there. That’s what they did.”
Gannon expanded on Jones Friday when he noted it was a tough decision when he was released in the cut to 53 and then revealed “we had a good sit-down” after he was signed off Miami’s practice squad.
“It was, ‘You can be an impactful player for us. You can be a good player for us. Here’s a couple things you gotta get better at,’” Gannon said. “And he’s really taken it to heart and he’s shown it. And that’s why he’s playing good ball right now, so it’s a credit to him.”
Gannon was also asked if Jones could provide any intel on the Dolphins after being there for a month, and he said succinctly, “No.”
So, coach, is that overrated when it’s talked about?
“In my opinion, yeah,” he said. “Trust your eyes. Watch the tape.”
When defensive coordinator Nick Rallis was asked about Jones, Stille and Dante Stills (who was inactive against the Rams), he joked, “You named half the D-line right there” and then said, “Collectively, they played really well last night. The technique was improved from previous weeks, execution was on point both in the run game, which was critical. That team’s a very good run team. But also in pass rush. They affected the quarterback and played with a high motor.”
As for the frequent use of two-linemen sets, Rallis said, “A lot can play into that. We ultimately, whatever that plan is, want to have that ability to be multiple within a game whether that’s two d-linemen, three d-linemen, three d-linemen playing multiple front structures. Much of that can go into what is the opponent doing, what have we done, what do we feel we can do differently to provide a changeup or take away what they do well whether that’s their personnel or their scheme. What can we continue to build on so we can execute at a high level. A lot of factors there.”
There are no tricks to having players get up to speed quickly, although it certainly did help that Jones and Stille were with the Cardinals last season and in the offseason and training camp this year.
“It comes with them being pros and being ready to play,” Rallis said. “They’re prepared. Prepare like pros, put in the work to get to that point, so when their number’s called, they’re ready to go make plays. The position coaches getting everybody ready, whether it’s the start of OTAs, it’s a rookie, it’s a vet, the guy that you acquired midseason. The position coaches do a phenomenal job putting in a lot of time to try to maximize players.”
Both Rallis and Gannon talk frequently about simply executing the details and then tackling well. Gannon’s favorite word salad is “alignment, assignment and key techniques.”
As Rallis noted, “Execute the scheme, play with good technique, attack the football, 11 hats to the ball, guys getting on hamstrings, capping the ball off, attacking the football, trying to get the ball out. It ultimately comes down to that.”
Gannon concluded, “When you start game-planning (you look at) what they do, what you can do, how you think they’re going to attack, how they end up attacking, what’s their curveballs, all the different personnel groups. All those different things go into a plan. I thought that Nick and the staff did a good job of, ‘Hey, we want to take away this and this and react to these other things.’ We’re kind of pushing our chips into these couple things and make sure we’re shored up there. It kind of came to fruition, right? Ultimately, it comes down to the players executing at a high level, which our guys did.
“I really thought that that’s a good O-line and they’ve been running it well. The front played well. They won a lot of one-on-ones. They had knock-back. I was standing a couple of times on the line of scrimmage and I thought that line of scrimmage was getting knocked back. That’s the first sign of good run defense. Set edges, just build a wall and get more than one hat on the ball. I thought we did that, and we tackled well too. I thought we tackled — not to go back in the past — but thought we tackled really well versus San Francisco, not so good against Green Bay. That’s got to get shored up. I thought we tackled well, so that was good.”
And this week is another day.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.