Arizona Cardinals Will be Down Two Key Players in Cleveland

The Arizona Cardinals will be making the trip to Cleveland with two key players that will not play Sunday afternoon.

It takes 11 players on each side of the football to win ball games, simply put. The Arizona Cardinals will be without two pretty important players on their team when they make the trip to Cleveland to take on the Browns.

Star pass rusher Chandler Jones and center Rodney Hudson both will not play for the Cardinals this Sunday.

Chandler Jones tested positive for COVID-19 and was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list with a positive test. He would need two negative tests by Sunday each 24 hours apart. This just will not likely happen since he is positive. The writing is on the wall. To this point in the season Jones has five sacks and looked to have returned to his prior form. The Cardinals have JJ Watt obviously, but missing a guy who has over 100 career sacks is not good news.

For Cleveland this will benefit them due to the health of the offensive tackle. Jedrick Wills Jr. and Jack Conklin both have been battling through injury, Wills even missing a game. This should alleviate some pressure on the pair and for Baker Mayfield.

Hudson was ruled out of Sunday’s game with a rib injury that was suffered against the San Francisco 49ers. Hudson does not miss many games as he’s not played in just one game in the last six years. This is a pretty important loss for Arizona.

Cleveland will have their own share of players out Sunday and some will return after being out prior. But, it looks like Arizona won’t make the trip fully healthy either. The tables should be even and Sunday’s matchup should be a good one even with the injuries. 

Brandon Little is a writer for Sports Illustrated’s Browns Digest website and you can follow him on Twitter here. You can follow Browns Digest on Twitter as well here.