RB Kenyan Drake in a walking boot; tweets “no worries I’m good”

Week one is still roughly three weeks away, yet the significant Cardinal news continues to circulate.

The good and the bad.

On Sunday, it was the announcement that the Cardinals had inked veteran corner Dre Kirkpatrick.

The good.

On Monday morning, head coach Kliff Kingsbury said that starting running back Kenyan Drake is in a “precautionary” walking boot.

The bad.

On Monday morning, Arizona Republic’s Bob McManaman reported the following via twitter:

This is the first time we’ve heard of an injury to Drake, which seems especially strange after the RB himself posted the following tweet just two days ago:

This could lead you to believe that this is truly precautionary and not even Drake himself is worried. Or the more realistic scenario would be that Drake injured his foot during Sunday’s practice.

Regardless, with Drake out, third year RB Chase Edmonds is now in line to receive the bulk of the carries for the Cardinals. Kingsbury himself recently stated that having Drake and Edmonds together felt like having two #1 caliber running backs.

This was via ProFootballTalk a week ago:

“We felt that confident in what Chase brings,” Kingsbury said. “When he had his opportunities, he shined, and he continues to shine. He can catch it, run it, block, play special teams, and he’s really bright football-wise. He’s everything you want.”“When he had his opportunities, he shined, and he continues to shine. He can catch it, run it, block, play special teams, and he’s really bright football-wise. He’s everything you want.”

Little did Kingsbury know that he’d have to dive into his depth chart at the position not even a week later

McManaman, with regard to Drake’s injury, would later tweet the following:

It’s important to keep in mind that this is the same front office/coaching staff that kept the Marcus Gilbert 2019 season ending leg injury under wraps until well after it was clear the veteran tackle would miss significant time. The only person that can truly comment on the severity to Kenyan Drake’s “injury” is...Kenyan Drake.

Update: Drake did speak!

A telling sign regarding Drake’s status would be whether or not the Cardinals opt to bring in outside help at the position. Former Falcon RB Devonta Freeman is a notable name available.