Cardinals’ Kyzir White headed to IR with torn bicep, out rest of 2023

TEMPE — The Arizona Cardinals are placing linebacker Kyzir White on injured reserve with a torn bicep suffered in Sunday’s 21-16 loss to the Houston Texans, head coach Jonathan Gannon said Monday.

Gannon later confirmed on Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo that White will miss the remainder of the season due to the injury.

“I think he played 5-6 plays with a torn bicep, which was actually kind of gut-wrenching to watch, because I didn’t know he tore his bicep and he was out there playing with one arm,” Gannon said during his weekly Monday press conference with reporters. “It’s why he is who he is, a captain.

#AZCardinals LB Kyzir White is headed to IR with a torn bicep, per head coach Jonathan Gannon.

🎥: @Tdrake4sports pic.twitter.com/k6OgHOBHvW

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) November 20, 2023

“You feel bad for all our guys that get nicked, but he’s not going to be able to finish the season,” the head coach added while on with Burns & Gambo. “But what he’s done for this team and the defense, being a captain, the player that he is, the person that he is, you just feel bad for the guy. But he’ll bounce back and be ready to go next year.”

Losing White is a devastating hit to the Cardinals defense.

Before Week 11’s loss to the Texans, White had played every available defensive snap as Arizona’s unquestioned MIKE backer, quarterback of the unit and JG-certified “War Daddy.”

On top of his leadership, he was far and away Arizona’s most productive defender 11 games in, pacing the team in tackles (90) and tackles for losses (nine) to go along with two sacks, an interception and three passes defensed.

Who takes over for Kyzir White?

Much like we saw in Sunday’s loss, Arizona will turn largely to Josh Woods and Krys Barnes to pick up the slack in White’s absence.

The former will likely handle the brunt of the green-dot duties (like in Week 11) moving forward while the latter is expected to slide into Woods’ role pre-White injury.

Their showing in place of the MIKE backer on Sunday was promising, with Woods registering the second-most tackles among Cardinals defenders with seven and Barnes making the most of his added reps with a red-zone interception, two passes defensed and a trio of tackles.

It was an impressive fill-in performance for the pair, who went from battling it out for the starting job alongside White at training camp to now having to carry the load the rest of the way at a critical position.

“It was a tight battle between him and I coming out of camp, but the thing that is most impressive about Krys is his character never wavered,” Woods said Monday. “He was always a good friend, he was still a good teammate. It was never anything spiteful and I think it paid off for him.

“The first thing he said when he got to the sideline was, ‘Man, I’ve been living right.'”

Additional moves made on Tuesday

The Cardinals announced defensive lineman Leki Fotu (hand) would join White on the injured reserve. Defensive lineman Ben Stille and safety Qwuantrezz Knight replace Fotu and White on the active roster.

Additionally, the team signed receiver Daniel Arias, who spent five years as a Colorado Buffalo from 2018-22, to the practice squad. The 6-foot-4 Arias replaces Davion Davis, who was released.

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