Cardinals Dealt Massive Blow Before Steelers Game

The Cardinals could be without top receiver Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown against the Steelers on Sunday. Brown missed his second straight practice on Thursday with a heel injury that has nagged him for weeks. He played on it against the Rams but looked less 100 percent throughout the day. While the Cardinals got some good news with the return of tight end Trey McBride, who missed Wednesday with a groin injury, Brown remains sidelined along with rookie receiver Michael Wilson, who is dealing with a shoulder injury.

Brown has been dealing with the heel injury, but was able to play through it on Sunday when he caught six passes for 88 yards in the Cardinals’ 37-14 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Brown was clearly less than 100% despite playing in the game. 

“It’s one of those things that you just need to toughen up, and I was able to,” Brown said to AZCardinals.com. “Didn’t get the results we wanted, so it was unfortunate.”

Brown has been Arizona’s top receiving threat this season. He is first on the team in targets (98), catches (51), receiving yards (574) and receiving touchdowns (4). That means if he can not go or is limited, Kyler Murray will have to create some more magic with guys like Greg Dortch, Rondale Moore, and James Conner.

Wilson, a third-round rookie out of Stanford, has developed into a quality second wide receiver, but he has been sidelined since Nov. 12 with a shoulder injury. He also did not practice at all last week, and with Arizona’s bye coming up in Week 14, the Cardinals may choose to wait a week to bring the young wide receiver back into the fold.

The Steelers will plan for all those players to go out there, but since the Cardinals have a bye week upcoming, they can decide to be more cautious with injuries. Either way, the group is banged up, especially at receiver.