Arizona Cardinals: Scouting Report from preseason Week 1
By Alexis Bravo
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows though for the Cardinals.
Unlike their passing attack, which will be dangerous to the say the least this year; their rushing attack looks to be just as pitiful as it did last year. That was clear even when the ones were in, Ellington IS NOT a true running back; simply isn’t.
(I’ll never understand why Arians wants the offense to be run through him, he cannot handle the workload of a true running back; he’s a wide receiver that can run the ball from time to time).
There were moments when the Cardinals looked proficient at rushing the ball but ultimately, they looked absolutely putrid at it. Over the course of the game, there were 27 rush attempts by the Cardinals for a whopping total of 77 yards – an average of 2.8 yards per attempt (less than what they average last year per game).
To make matters worse, there have been several reports that Arians isn’t pleased with the running back as a whole, which is why the Cardinals are looking elsewhere for help – Chris Johnson seems to be the guy they’re targeting.
(Update: Chris Johnson is now a Cardinal)
It also seems like David Johnson, a rookie running back out of Northern Iowa taken in the third round, just isn’t making much of an impact – injuries have sidelined him and hindered his development making fall further below the depth chart – he was 5th in the depth chart last time I saw and I highly doubt there being any real climb over the past few days.
Next: The Bad