Cardinals’ Michael Carter feels ‘at home’ as team’s RB1
Jan 3, 2025, 4:31 PM
With the Cardinals suffering a string of injuries that has left the team with a depleted running backs room, Michael Carter will presumably assume a role once familiar to him as a starting running back when Arizona plays against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
Carter and DeeJay Dallas are the only running backs on the Cardinals’ active roster after James Conner, Emari Demercado and Trey Benson have all been ruled out for the season and were placed on injured reserve.
After Conner was moved to IR on Wednesday, Carter was signed to the team’s active roster from the practice squad in a corresponding move.
“Yeah, it feels good. It’s something that I’ve been accustomed to my whole life,” Carter told Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke on Friday about being the lead back. “So I feel at home being in this position.”
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The fifth-year pro out of North Carolina started the season on the Cardinals’ practice squad before receiving elevations the past two weeks.
He ran for 88 yards on 18 carries over the past two games, including 70 yards on 13 carries in Saturday’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
“Anytime you can get chunk gains in the pass game, it’s gonna soften the defense up,” Carter said. “So I feel like we did a pretty good job of that and then the offensive line was really blocking well up front.”
The 25-year-old was selected in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. After back-to-back seasons where he operated as the team’s lead back and collected more than 110 carries each season, Carter fell down the pecking order in New York after the emergence of Breece Hall.
Carter was then claimed off waivers by the Cardinals immediately after his spell with the Jets. He played in six games for Arizona in 2023 and tallied 22 carries for 149 yards and added nine receptions (on 11 targets) for 33 yards and a touchdown.
Michael Carter: ‘I didn’t know football at the pro level could be this fun.’
But despite his showing last season, Carter did not make the Cardinals’ initial 53-man roster out of camp.
Carter found himself behind Conner, Benson, Demercado and Dallas and off the team’s active roster for much of the year, yet he praised the team’s running backs room and said, “I didn’t know football at the pro level could be this fun.”
“It’s been an interesting year, obviously, for myself but I think having the guys in the room that we have, it makes it way easier to live life and enjoy it.”
Carter said running backs coach Autry Denson is the secret to the group’s cohesion. Denson, now in his second season with Arizona, has been pivotal in setting the tone for the room, according to Carter.
“Our room has great vibes from the top down and it starts with our running backs coach,” Carter said.
In addition, sharing time with teammates outside of football, like having dinner at Kyler Murray’s house, has translated to Carter’s desire to want to play for reasons bigger than his own.
“Yeah, when I got here, to be honest, it didn’t really feel like that,” Carter said about the team’s camaraderie from the outside looking in. “Me personally, I feel like I’ve gotten so close to a lot of guys on the team. The closer I get to (my teammates), the harder I play and the harder I want to play for my teammates.”
The Cardinals will wrap up their season at home against the 49ers at 2:25 p.m. on Sunday. Listen to play-by-play on 98.7, Arizona Sports.com and the Arizona Sports app.
