Arizona Cardinals linebacker Dennis Gardeck had a special season in 2020 that ended sadly. After making plays on special teams and suddenly becoming an efficient pass rusher, finishing the season with seven sacks in only 93 defensive snaps, his season came to an abrupt halt with a knee injury.
He missed the final two games of the season. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury would not elaborate as to the specific nature of the injury or his timetable to return, but Gardeck revealed more on social media on Tuesday. He is having his ACL repaired.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ7np7IFoyf/
His message:
I appreciate all the well wishes, your support doesn’t go unnoticed! The road to recovery begins tomorrow with ACL reconstruction. I’ll be back and better than ever in 2021, believe it!
He apparently is set to undergo surgery on Wednesday and then begin the road to recovery.
It is unfortunate for Gardeck, who is scheduled to be a restricted free agent.
He won’t likely be ready to play until the second half of the 2021 season.
The Cardinals have dealt with this before, though. Receiver Jaron Brown tore his ACL in the season he was set to become a restricted free agent. They signed him to a deal that was roughly equal what the restricted free agent tender would have been.
Gardeck has overcome a lot already in his career. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him come back and be even better.
Mike Nugent is signed to the active roster after Zane Gonzalez is placed on IR earlier in the week.
The Arizona Cardinals announced a number of roster moves on Friday on the eve of their Week 16 game against the San Francisco 49ers. They placed a player on injured reserve, added two players to the roster, elevated one from the practice squad for the game and signed a kicker to the practice squad.
His knee injury will end his season after seven sacks in only 93 snaps.
Arizona Cardinals linebacker Dennis Gardeck has had a fantastic season but it now comes to an end. After two sacks in Week 15 against the Philadelphia Eagles to bring his season total to seven in only 93 defensive snaps, he exited the game with a knee injury.
After being unable to practice all week and seeing if there was any way for him to play through it, he will not be able to play. He is headed to injured reserve.
“With Dennis, he’s such a tough guy, we were exploring every option to try and get him out there,” Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury told reporters on Friday. “It doesn’t appear like it’s going to work out, so he’ll be put on IR for the remainder of the season.”
Gardeck’s presence on special teams and on defense will be missed. He is second on the team in sacks with seven. He finishes the season with nine tackles, seven for loss, seven sacks, 10 quarterback hits and a fumble recovery. He is also tied for the third-most special teams tackles on the team with nine.
Their production as a group went unheralded in the league.
The Arizona Cardinals picked up a critical win on Sunday in Week 15, a 33-26 of the Philadelphia Eagles. They had big contributions from a number of players.
Quarterback Kyler Murray threw for a career-high 406 yards, had three touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown. DeAndre Hopkins caught nine passes for 169 yards and a score. Defensive lineman Zach Allen had 11 tackles, a sack and a pass breakup. Ezekiel Turner blocked a punt and caught a 26-yard pass on fourth down on a fake punt, perfectly thrown by punter Andy Lee.
But according to Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar, the Cardinals also had some of the secret superstars of Week 15. It wasn’t just one player. It was a trio of players — outside linebackers Haason Reddick, Markus Golden and Dennis Gardeck.
One week after Cardinals edge-rusher Haason Reddick had five sacks against the Giants, Arizona went after the opposing quarterback again at a very high rate, and it wasn’t just Reddick. Against Jalen Hurts and the Eagles, Reddick had a sack, a quarterback hit, and eight quarterback hurries. Dennis Gardeck had two sacks and three quarterback hurries, and Markus Golden had a quarterback hit and two quarterback hurries. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph wants his rushers to attack with speed and aggressiveness, and that’s exactly what they’re doing. In a 33-26 win over the Eagles, the Cardinals forced Hurts to throw under pressure on 22 of his 55 dropbacks with six total sacks.
An impressive performance from a group capable of making any quarterback’s life pretty miserable at this point. The Cardinals are doing a lot with front diversity and protection confusion, and this is often the result.
“It is a challenge,” Eagles head coach Doug Pederson said last week of those pressure packages. “It’s a unique defensive call by them. They put all linebackers on the field with their defensive back guys and it’s all speed rush. They don’t bring them all every time. They drop guys out. They present eight-man pressure looks, seven-man pressure looks, and six-man pressure looks.
“It can be a little bit challenging, and it is challenging to try to decipher the code, but we do the best we can. We go in with the protection plan we have and execute it and try to eliminate as much confusion as possible.”
Hurts played very well, but it was a problem on Sunday.
The play of these three has been huge the last two weeks. Reddick is on a tear after a five-week lull of no sacks. Getting back some defensive linemen healthy has clearly made a difference for him. He has had six sacks and five forced fumbles in the last two games. Gardeck has seven sacks in only 93 defensive snaps this season.
While the Cardinals obviously miss Chandler Jones, they have picked up the slack in the pass-rushing department in his absence. Arizona is only two sacks off of the league lead with 43 sacks. They have had 14 in the last two games.
The Cardinals might need to win their final two games to get into the postseason. If they are going to do that, then their trio of edge rushers will have to continue to play at a high level.
With a slightly shortened week, as the Arizona Cardinals will play on Saturday instead of Sunday, head coach Kliff Kingsbury addressed the media on Tuesday.
He answered questions about injuries before the first injury report of the week came out. He gave shed some light onto the status of linebacker Dennis Gardeck and tight end Maxx Williams, both of whom left the game on Sunday with injuries, and guard Justin Pugh, who did not play.
Gardeck and Williams are considered day-to-day.
Kingsbury did not say what Gardeck hurt but he has a chance to play on Saturday. The first injury report of the week revealed it is a knee injury.
“He’s working through it,” Kingsbury said. “We’re going to see. It will be a game-time decision to see how he feels. We’ll get him out there and move him around this week and take it from there.”
For Williams, who was carted to the locker room after he threw his helmet down in frustration, it is the same ankle that has plagued him all year,
“He banged that same ankle,” Kingsbury said. “Nothing too significant but it will be a day-to-day type week for Maxx as well.”
The Cardinals protected practice squad tight end Seth DeValve this week, so there is some concern Williams won’t be able to go.
Pugh could return to the lineup after sitting out a game with a calf injury.
“Justin’s feeling better. We are going to try and ease him back in,” Kingsbury said. “I’m not sure if it will be this week or next week, but he has definitely made improvement, which is a great sign.”
He had his sixth sack of the year in the first quarter on Sunday, giving him six on the season.
Arizona Cardinals linebacker Dennis Gardeck has been a huge surprise this season. known for his special teams prowess, he has been much more in 2020.
He still makes an impact on special teams, but he also has been one of the league’s most efficient pass rushers.
In the first quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles, he picked up a sack on his first defensive snap of the game. It was his sixth sack of the season.
With his sixth sack, he set a franchise record for the most sacks by a player who went undrafted.
The previous mark was set by Olsen Pierre with 5.5 sacks in 2017.
He entered the game with five sacks on only 69 defensive snaps.
Four players and their performance stood out more than any other.
The Arizona Cardinals picked up a big win on Sunday, defeating the New York Giants 26-7 on the road. It ended a three-game losing streak and gave them possession of the No. 7 seed in the NFC, the final wild card spot, with three games to go.
The Cardinals’ free agent additions will have the same numbers they did with their previous team.
The Arizona Cardinals now have jersey numbers assigned for all their players, including their newcomers. That has meant, in some cases, that players who were already on the roster had to change theirs.
Here are the jersey numbers for the new Cardinals players.
WR DeAndre Hopkins: No. 10
LB De’Vondre Campbell: No. 59
LB Devon Kennard: No. 42
DL Trevon Coley: No. 93
DL Jordan Phillips: No. 97
QB Chris Streveler: No. 15
These returning players have changed their numbers, some because of the newcomers.
WR Hakeem Butler goes from No. 17 to No. 18
S Chris Banjo goes from No. 38 to No. 31, previously worn by David Johnson
LB Dennis Gardeck goes from No. 42 to No. 45 to accommodate Kennard
DL Zach Allen goes from No. 97 to No. 94 to accommodate Phillips
Kyler Murray, Zane Gonzalez and Dennis Gardeck are alternates.
The Arizona Cardinals, despite a 4-9-1 record, have a pair of Pro Bowlers. The league announced who was selected to the 2020 Pro Bowl. Outside linebacker Chandler Jones and safety Budda Baker were selected as starters.
Jones makes the Pro Bowl for the third time in his career, the second time as a member of the Cardinals.
Baker makes it for the second time. The first time was his rookie season when he made the squad as a special teamer.
The Cardinals also had three players named as alternates.
Quarterback Kyler Murray, kicker Zane Gonzalez and special teamer Dennis Gardeck could be replacements if starters are hurt or are in the Super Bowl.
Linebacker Jordan Hicks, despite a productive season, is snubbed.
