David Johnson went on injured reserve today. Teams can bring back two players total from IR in a season. They don't have to be designated ahead of time. Johnson is an obvious candidate, and with an 8-to-12-week wrist injury and the need to stay on IR at least eight weeks before being eligible to return, that means the earliest, best-case scenario for Johnson would be a comeback on Tuesday, Nov. 7. That happens to be the week the Cards host the Seahawks on Thursday night, Nov. 9. It was always unlikely Johnson would make that initial date.
But Tuesday night, during his weekly interview on Sirius XM NFL radio, Arians said it could be much later.
"Hopefully, as miraculous as he came back from that knee injury last year, I'm hoping we can possibly get him back by Thanksgiving or Christmas," Arians said.
That's a show stopper.
Thanksgiving is one thing. But the Cardinals play the next-to-last game of the regular season on Christmas Eve, at home against the Giants. Even if we don't get technical on Arians and assume he means Christmas week, that would only leave two regular-season games he could play. If not, it's one game, the finale at Seattle. That would seem to make an assumption the Cardinals are in or have a chance to be in the postseason. Because bringing Johnson back for at most two games doesn't make a lot of sense.
It would put also Johnson's timetable to return at 14 weeks (Thanksgiving would be 10 weeks), which is on the far other side of 8-to-12 weeks. And it shows just how serious this injury is to the all-pro running back.
