The Arizona Cardinals will be without a key insurance policy for their secondary in 2016.
Just one day after he was carted off the field with a non-contact knee injury, the 2016 season is over for Arizona Cardinals defensive back Mike Jenkins.
Bruce Arians, " He's going to have to have surgery and he'll be out for the year," on Mike Jenkins.
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) August 29, 2016
Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians addressed the media on Monday afternoon and broke the news that Jenkins, who signed with Arizona in mid-July, suffered a torn ACL while attempting to stay with Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins during a preseason game. While Jenkins, who is now 31 years old, is not considered an upper-tier player at this point in his NFL career, this is a considerable loss for the Cardinals for a number of reasons.
First, Arizona is still awaiting the return of outstanding defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, who was once again unable to play in the team’s third preseason contest. Beyond that, the Cardinals are fairly weak in the secondary outside of Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Peterson, and Jenkins could have provided a theoretical level of safety in an otherwise adventurous unit.
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Jenkins has been much maligned at times during his nine-year NFL career but much of that has been spent as a functional starting cornerback in the league. There is, of course, a reason he was available for as long as he was after spending 2015 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but as a stop-gap option, Arizona certainly could have done far worse, and now, the Cardinals could be searching for answers both on and off the current roster.
Preseason injuries are never fun, but in this case, Mike Jenkins could be facing one that is also challenging to his overall status as an NFL player. Most cornerbacks are already on the downside at the age of 31, and Jenkins likely faces an uphill battle in the coming months when it comes to rehabilitating his injury.