Mike Iupati arm injury gives Arians some concern

It never seems to end for the Arizona Cardinals. While it is part of the NFL game, it always seems like for the Cardinals, it is always an injury to a player the Cardinals really couldn’t afford to have.

Now, after a really ineffective outing against the Chicago Bears, it has been released that Mike Iupati is battling a triceps injury.

On Tuesday’s episode of Bickley and Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7FM, Arians had this to say:

“I’m a little concerned with Iupati’s arm injury, but hopefully it calms down pretty quickly.”

While the injury to Iupati could explain his play on Saturday, I tweeted out my concern that maybe Iupati just didn’t have it anymore, you would be 100% understanding if he was dealing with the triceps issue on Saturday and he played like he did.

The bigger question, and one we knew was coming, is can Iupati stay healthy and more importantly, effective?

He has been one of the best guards in the NFL for a number of years, but has seemingly had to deal with declining play as his physical abilities declined and the number of ailments grew. This isn’t surprising either. Iupati’s game was always built on being a bully. He has fantastic footwork, but his ability to completely dominate the man in front of him was always what made Iupati unique.

If that is leaving him, you’ll begin to see more holes in his game overall. Again, understandable as your biggest asset leaves you.

For the Cardinals, they hope a quick recovery will also be the cure all for Iupati and allow him to get back to his dominating style of play. A healthy Iupati will help open things up in the run game for David Johnson, like few other offensive lineman in the NFL can do.