Arizona Cardinals running back Andre Ellington suffered a right knee injury in the fourth quarter of the team's 31-19 win over the Saints on Sunday. Head coach Bruce Arians said the injury appears to be a posterior cruciate ligament injury, but that is not certain, according to Bob McManaman and Kent Somers of AZcentral.com.
"It's hopefully a day-to-day thing with Andre," said quarterback Carson Palmer, via AZcentral.com. "I thought it was a lot more serious with the way he went down. But it looks like he's going to be OK, hopefully."
After the game, Ellington was seen walking without a limp, which led to his quarterback's likely optimism. Ellington is a huge piece for the Arizona offense, and in 12 games played last season he rushed for 660 yards and three touchdowns. Many were expecting big things from the third-year running back, who on 12 carries against the Saints rushed for 69 yards and a touchdown.
Chris Johnson will likely be seeing a much bigger workload now. Johnson at one time was a top running back in the entire NFL and joined the 2,000-yard club back in 2009. Since then Johnson has been less effective, but still a solid NFL running back. Last season with the Jets, he rushed for 663 yards, but averaged 4.3 yards per carry. In his first action as an Arizona Cardinal, Johnson rushed for 37 yards on 10 carries.
Health has seemed to be a main concern for the Cardinals for the past couple seasons now. Last season it was Palmer, and without him the Cardinals crumbled down the stretch, including the playoffs. When much of the concern was focused on protecting Palmer, it seems almost ironic that their top running back gets hurt.
The severity of Ellington's injury will likely be revealed soon, but it seems unlikely for him to be going next week against the Chicago Bears. Look for Johnson to have a big role next week for the Cardinals and for Arizona to use a short passing game if the run game isn't as effective.