Cardinals special-teams captain and outside linebacker Dennis Gardeck will miss Sunday's season opener in Tennessee due to an injury sustained in practice, head coach Kliff Kingsbury said Friday after practice.
Gardeck showed up on Thursday's injury report as limited with a knee and hand injury, and the latter issue could possibly keep Gardeck out for multiple weeks. He injured his hand in practice Thursday.
Gardeck spent the offseason rehabbing from a torn ACL he suffered in Week 15 against the Eagles.
He was removed from the physically unable to perform list on Aug. 23, but the Cardinals plan has been to play it safe with their 2020 second-leading sack-getter.
"He's a bit down, but we're hoping it's not too long," Kingsbury told the media after practice Friday. "And like we said a lot, we're gonna err on the side of caution. And it could be more of a blessing in disguise, to really let him get healed up over the next couple of weeks. And then we'll get him back."
Perhaps, he would not have played anyway.
Gardeck mentioned in a press conference following his return that he's strictly sticking to the training staff's plan, and that whether or not he would be ready for Week 1 was too far out to determine.
Kingsbury repeated earlier this week that they will take a cautious approach to getting Gardeck on the field early in the season.
The captain had seven sacks last year in under 100 defensive snaps.
He never played on defense in an NFL game over his first two seasons, but Kingsbury said that the scout team offense could not block him. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph ran some packages with Gardeck on the edge in 2020, and he became a spark plug with unlimited energy.
"We just want him to be healthy, be full speed and then his package will continue to expand," Kingsbury said Monday.
More must-reads: