Cardinals offense already down key piece for Week 1 game vs. Chargers

TEMPE — It wasn’t all good news Thursday for the Arizona Cardinals.

Garrett Williams coming off the physically unable to perform list is a huge step toward the nickel cornerback potentially being ready by Week 1 or soon after.

For going down with a torn Achilles last December, it’s an impressive feat for one of the defense’s biggest contributors.

But it was another update regarding another Cardinals’ PUP stint that took away from some of the optimism.

Tight end Tip Reiman will not be ready for Week 1 as he continues to work back from a gruesome ankle injury suffered last season.

Tip Reiman will not be ready by Week 1, says Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur.

Josh Sweat, meanwhile, is looking good. pic.twitter.com/kCdRvKMoCM

— Tyler Drake (@Tdrake4sports) August 20, 2026

It’s a tough development, with Reiman being Arizona’s blocking tight end. He might not light up the stat line, but the tight end is a critical part of the run and pass games. The running backs room dealt with plenty of injuries, but losing Reiman was another tough blow in that department.

You aren’t given the title of honorary offensive lineman from Paris Johnson Jr. and others for nothing.

LaFleur, who has spoken glowingly of the tight end and how impactful he can be in the offense, during training camp had held out hope that Reiman could be back in the mix ahead of the regular season.

That’s no longer going to be the case, which leads us to two big questions, beginning with:

How long could Tip Reiman remain on the shelf?

It’s unclear how much more, if any, time Reiman will need beyond Week 1.

But if it’s around a four-week timeline, the tight end could find himself on the reserve/PUP list.

He would have to miss at least four weeks — similar to injured reserve — and would open up a roster spot for Arizona.

“Those are the tough decisions, and you lean on the player to speak truth as well and trust these guys,” LaFleur said Thursday.

“Tip is made of all the right stuff. Tip’s going to keep it real with us, but those are the decisions that have to be made.”

Arizona’s opening stretch of games was already a gauntlet. Not having a premium blocker like Reiman certainly doesn’t help.

And that leads us to the second question:

Who steps up in place of Reiman?

With Reiman out of the Week 1 picture (and potentially longer), there’s a big void in the tight ends room.

Trey McBride and Elijah Higgins serve as the team’s playmaking tight ends.

That leaves Teagan Quitoriano as the next man up on the blocking side of things.

A Reiman 2.0 in build, Quitoriano has gotten plenty of first-team run this camp with his counterpart sidelined.

He’s got 40 games (16 starts) under his belt and brought that blocking mentality to both Houston and Atlanta before joining Arizona this offseason.

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