Second-year Arizona Cardinals running back Eno Benjamin has played a pretty big role for the disappointing team thus far this season. In fact, he took over RB1 duties when James Conner missed three games to injury earlier in the campaign.
That’s why Monday’s news has to be considered a pretty big surprise. ESPN’s Adam Schefter was the first to report that the Cardinals have released the 2021 seventh-round pick. Benjamin himself seemed to confirm it on social media a short while later, too.
This comes immediately after Benjamin saw action for just one play on offense in Arizona’s Week 10 win over the division-rival Los Angeles Rams. Something had to have happened behind the scenes for the Cardinals to make this decision.
The Arizona State product saw substantial action on offense this season ahead of Sunday’s game. In fact, he played in 70-plus percent of Arizona’s snaps from Week 6-8. Again, something has to be up behind the scenes for the Cardinals to move on from such a high-upside young back.
- Eno Benjamin stats (2022): 70 attempts, 299 rushing yards, 4.3 average, 24 receptions, 184 receiving yards, 483 total yards, 2 TD
A team simply doesn’t release a player of this ilk on a whim. That’s especially true with Conner’s injury issues and the fact that Arizona is heading into a must win against the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico City next Monday.
We’ll obviously have full updates on what led to Benjamin’s release once they become available.
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