TUESDAY, 3:08pm: The Cardinals are evaluating all of their options when it comes to Johnson, as Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com reports (Twitter links). The Cards could keep CJ on the roster, place him on IR, or use the temporary IR for him. With the temporary IR, Somers believes that the soonest he could return would be for a possible NFL title game. Johnson’s injury, he adds, is a chip fracture near the top of tibia and close to knee, rather than the traditional broken leg a “tibia fracture” would suggest.
Meanwhile, backup Andre Ellington was diagnosed with a sprained toe after tests, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. He’s day-to-day and his status for Sunday is in doubt.
9:02am: Mike Jurecki of Fox Sports 910 (Twitter link) hears that Johnson is expected to miss six to eight weeks, noting that the club could promote Kerwynn Williams from the practice squad to help replenish the backfield in Johnson’s absence. The timeline suggested by Jurecki would put Johnson on track for a possible return in the postseason, though there’s no guarantee he’d be healthy in time for Arizona’s first playoff game.
MONDAY, 5:23pm: The Cardinals have learned that star running back Chris Johnson suffered a fractured tibia on Sunday, according to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports (on Twitter). Johnson will be be out for an extended period of time, but it’s not immediately clear exactly how long he will be sidelined. As Arizona looks ahead to Week 13, one has to imagine that Johnson’s regular season could be over and that could spill over into postseason territory as well.
Early reports on Sunday indicated that suffered a left knee injury, but it turns out that his injury happened below the knee. So far in 2015, the 30-year-old has enjoyed a resurgence that few imagined could be possible over the offseason. In 11 games (9 starts) for the Cards, Johnson has rushed for 814 yards and three scores off of 196 carries.
Last season for the Jets, Johnson ran for just 663 yards, the first time in his career he recorded fewer than 1,000 yards in a season. However, he averaged a respectable 4.3 yards per carry for Gang Green in 2014. Meanwhile, the ground game was a weak spot in Arizona last season, as the team’s leading rusher, Andre Ellington, totaled just 660 yards, averaging 3.3 yards per carry.
In October, the Cardinals went on record saying that they would look into an extension for CJ2K.
He’ll be back, he’s a beast….too many “experts” counted him out
This could reasonably make this season Johnson’s last after he’d established some momentum. Of course, he could make a return in the playoffs and try to recoup some of the value this injury affects, but he’ll be 31 next year with an inconsistent history. There are just cheaper, younger options for teams to sign/draft.