TEMPE, AZ — Cardinals fans wondering about the playing fate of three of their team’s most prominent performers will have to wait until Sunday to find out - but then again, so will the head coach.
On Friday, Kliff Kingsbury made it clear David Johnson, Terrell Suggs and Christian Kirk will all be game-time decisions for Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons at State Farm Stadium (1:05 pm, Fox).
The loss of Johnson could be the biggest blow to the Cardinals offensive attack after the running back powered through a sore back en route to a 20 touch, 84 yard day helping the Cardinals to their first win of the season last Sunday. Johnson is officially listed as questionable after moving around a bit during Friday’s workout.
“He’s feeling better,” said Kingsbury. “We have 48 hours and hopefully we can get him all the way there. It was nice to have him out there today.”
If Johnson can’t play, the Cardinals will turn to second-year pro Chase Edmonds who would be asked to be the featured running back for the first time in his young career. Kingsbury was asked Friday if Edmonds was ready for a 20-25 carry workload.
“There’s only one way to find out,” said Kingsbury. “He’s worked really hard and he know he believes he is. You’ve seen his workload increase because he’s earned those reps and he’s performing at a high level since I got here. So he believes he can and if that’s the case, we look forward to seeing how that plays out for him.”
Kirk remains perhaps a bigger question mark. The wide receiver continues to rehab from an ankle injury that forced him to miss the Bengals game last week. Kirk will have to run his ankle through a variety of game-like cuts on Sunday morning.
“That’s what we’re working through,” said Kingsbury. “Straight ahead [running] looks really good. It’s just being able to make those reactionary cuts during a game. We just want to make sure he’s ready to go if we allow him to play on Sunday.”
The ailing back which landed Suggs on the injury last week, did not force the linebacker to the sidelines in Cincinnati. The Cardinals are hoping to the veteran will be able to be play again Sunday against the Falcons.
“We’ll see how it progresses over the next couple of days,” said Kingsbury. “Hopefully he will be ready to go on Sunday. It’s just more precautionary with him. There’s some tightness and we need to be smart about it. If he can go and he feels loose enough to play, he’ll play. Ig not, we’ll wait until next week.
