Cardinals HC Jonathan Gannon does Michael Carter dirty after sitting him out of preseason finale

The Arizona Cardinals might not be great in 2024, but they sure appear to be more interesting than they were last season. Not only is Kyler Murray healthy, but they drafted Marvin Harrison Jr., a generational receiver prospect, and have exciting contributors around him such as Trey McBride and Paris Johnson Jr.

One area that could be a weakness of this Cardinals team is its running game, particularly with their depth. James Conner is solid when healthy, but he seems to miss substantial time due to injury each year. He has been limited to 13 games in each of their last two seasons.

Behind Conner is presumably going to be Trey Benson, a player taken in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft. After Benson, things get a bit dicey with guys like Emari Demercado, DeeJay Dallas, Tony Jones, and Michael Carter in the mix.

Things appeared to be trending in Carter's favor in particular when it came to making Arizona's 53-man roster, as he did not appear in their last preseason game and Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon seemed to imply that he had liked what he had seen from Carter. As it turns out, Carter did not make the team, and we were all bamboozled.

Michael Carter deserves better after Jonathan Gannon does him dirty

Gannon said that Carter did not play in Arizona's last preseason game because he didn't have anything else to prove. Does that not imply that Carter had played well enough to make their team? Did Gannon mean he proved he was not good enough with that statement?

He didn't get many touches over the preseason which makes sense given the glut of running backs on their roster, but Carter had 50 yards on his nine carries, averaging 5.5 yards per attempt in his two preseason games. He even chipped in one reception for 15 yards. He didn't touch the ball once, but are those not solid numbers?

He put up those preseason statistics shortly after he ran for 149 yards in 22 attempts, good for 6.8 yards per attempt in six games for Arizona last season after he was claimed off of waivers from the New York Jets.

He wasn't quite as efficient in parts of three seasons in New York, but was also playing on a Jets team devoid of a quarterback and behind poor offensive lines. Even if Carter isn't an uber-efficient rusher, he has proven to be a very capable receiving back who actually would've made a lot of sense on this Cardinals roster as a potential third-stringer.

The problem isn't even Carter not making the team even if an argument could be made in his favor. The problem is Gannon implying that he had played so well to the point where he was resting in their third preseason game because he had made the team when clearly, that was not the case. Gannon wanted to get a look at other backs, but didn't have to answer Carter's absence in the fashion that he did.

Hopefully, Carter can find his way onto a different roster where he might be treated a bit better.