{"id":1165,"date":"2016-09-11T10:49:49","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T14:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2016-09-11T10:49:49","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T14:49:49","slug":"arizona-cardinals-week-one-three-rookies-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2016\/09\/11\/arizona-cardinals-week-one-three-rookies-to-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Cardinals Week One: Three Rookies to Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rob Gronkowski<\/a> and two starters from the New England Patriots<\/strong> offensive line have been officially ruled out for their Sunday night battle\u00a0against the Arizona Cardinals<\/strong>, changing\u00a0the tone of the contest\u00a0dramatically. What has been circled on many Cardinals fans’ calendars as a potential Super Bowl<\/strong> preview may end up looking more like a glorified preseason game.\u00a0This won’t stop NBC<\/strong> from billing this game as Proven vs. Promise<\/em> and hyping it as a marquee match-up, though.<\/p>\n

It would be a major disappointment if Arizona\u00a0isn’t able to take care of business in week one, given the adversity that New England is facing. While the game might not be as competitively interesting as hoped, here are three rookies football fans should watch very closely. Each of these players will be making their\u00a0NFL<\/strong> debut,\u00a0and two of them will be starting.<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals Week One: Three Rookies to Watch<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Brandon Williams<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The first and most questionable of the three rookies to watch is third-round pick Brandon Williams<\/a> out of Texas A&M<\/strong>. The freakishly-athletic running back turned corner\u00a0will start opposite Patrick Peterson<\/a>. Starting on the other side of the All-Pro<\/strong>\u00a0surely will force targets his\u00a0way, but the fact that this is only his second year playing corner and his first NFL game guarantees he will have Jimmy Garoppolo<\/a> throwing at him all game. Can he step up to the challenge? That remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

D.J. Humphries\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The second guy\u00a0to watch is D.J. Humphries<\/strong>. Humphries is technically not a first-year player, but after not dressing for a single game last year, it is his red-shirt rookie season. He will be starting at right tackle and trying to protect Carson Palmer<\/a> against a formidable Patriots front seven. Humphries has received praise by coaches and local radio for his run blocking during the preseason,\u00a0but his deficiencies in pass protection have also been noteworthy.\u00a0Humphries has seemed to mature greatly over the last off-season, so hopefully, he\u00a0has shaken off the nickname “Knee Deep” from last season.<\/p>\n

Robert Nkemdiche<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Rookie number three, Robert Nkemdiche<\/strong>, is the least to worry about. In his single game this preseason, he looked fantastic, creating pressure and penetration against a decent Broncos line. It will be intriguing\u00a0to see how many snaps he actually plays considering that the Cardinals kept nine defensive linemen on the active roster.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals will get the luxury of evaluating some young talent in a game that matters. They should also win this game easily, 27-10.<\/p>\n

Main Photo:<\/p>\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Patriots stars ruled out for Sunday’s game, the Arizona Cardinals have three rookies the football world should watch out for in the matchup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1666,"featured_media":1264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,54,5],"tags":[279,455,61,38,40,454,456],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardinals","category-editorials","category-patriots","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-brandon-williams","tag-football","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-robert-nkemdiche","tag-sunday-night-football"],"modified_by":"Parker Hurley, Team Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1666"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}