CARDS’ SHIPLEY OUT FOR SEASON
Rookie center Cole takes starting role Historic change needed to survive loss of Shipley
The Cardinals lost a lot more than the “heartbeat of the offensive line.” They lost their communications director, drill sergeant and commander in chief all in one by losing starting center A.Q. Shipley to a season-ending knee injury.
Shipley, 32, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during Saturday’s “Red & White” practice. An MRI exam confirmed the damage and Shipley will now undergo surgery, be placed on injured reserve and miss the entire season.
“It’s a very unfortunate situation for him and the team,” coach Steve Wilks said in announcing the news on Monday. “As I mentioned a couple days ago, he’s a tremendous leader, a hard worker and when you talk about the DNA I look
To survive the loss of center A.Q. Shipley for the season due to a torn ACL, the Cardinals are counting on a rare occurrence:
One of their drafted offensive linemen staying healthy and playing well early in his career.
Finding, developing and nurturing offensive linemen has never been a strength of the organization. That history is both ancient and recent.
In 30 years in Arizona, only three Cardinals offensive linemen (Luis Sharpe, Lomas Brown, Mike Iupati) have made the Pro Bowl. Sharpe was
for, the love of the game, very passionate and gritty, he really was the leader up front.
“It’s going to be an opportunity for other guys to step up at this particular time, particularly Mason Cole.”
Cole, the Cardinals’ third-round draft pick out of Michigan, will assume Shipley’s role with the first-team offense, Wilks said. Cole, 6-feet-4, 307 pounds, has started 104 consecutive games since the start of his high school career in Tarpon Springs, Fla.
“He has a proven track record to be able to come in and be successful,” Wilks said. “I’m excited about his opportunity, but I’m very disappointed in the loss of A.Q.”
Cole, who in 2014 became the first true freshman in Michigan history to start a season opener on the offensive line, said he won’t be intimidated being a rookie starter in the NFL. The last rookie offensive lineman to do it for the Cardinals was tackle Bobby Massie back in 2012. Cole said he has the confidence to get the job done.
“I think that’s why they drafted me here, for something like this, if something like this ever happened,” Cole said. “Obviously, it happened sooner than anyone thought, but I’m confident I can do it.”
Cole spent only one season at Michigan playing center. That was his junior year. The rest of his career with the Wolverines was spent playing left tackle.
Wilks said Evan Boehm and Daniel Munyer will split time as Cole’s primary backups while they also continue to get reps at both guard positions. Wilks said Shipley’s injury will force the team to search outside the organization for added depth at center, but reiterated that the starting job now belongs to Cole.
Shipley wasn’t immediately available for comment, but he tweeted out a statement on Monday:
“Nobody ever wants to hear the words that I heard on Saturday. As football players, we prepare our bodies and work our asses off to put it all on display on Sundays. When you are told there will be no Sundays this year, it’s the hardest news I’ve ever received in my career.”
The torn ACL could mean the end of Shipley’s tenure with the Cardinals. Set to enter his third season as Arizona’s full-time starting center, he is in the final year of his two-year contract and will become an unrestricted free agent after the upcoming 2018 season.
Justin Pugh, the team’s starting right guard, said the Cardinals will miss Shipley for a multitude of reasons, namely because the seven-year pro had the main responsibilities of “getting everyone on the right page, coming up and getting everybody set, and just being the leader out there.”
Cardinals players knew right away that something was seriously wrong with Shipley when he went down after engaging with a defensive lineman toward the end of Saturday’s practice inside University of Phoenix Stadium. Several players gathered around the fallen center as he tried to gather himself and eventually, get to his feet.
After Shipley went inside a pop-up tent along the sideline for an immediate evaluation by the training staff, receiver Larry Fitzgerald and left tackle D.J. Humphries took turns ducking into the tent to check on his condition.
“It happens, but I think you’ve got to quickly hit the reset button,” Wilks said. “You could tell a little bit on Saturday that it took the sail out of the offense and the team as a whole, not really knowing what happened but understanding he went off. You could tell it wasn’t good. But again, we’ve got to hit the reset button. We’ve got to bounce back.”
Pugh said the team was over the weekend.
“Throughout my career I’ve seen guys go down, guys get hurt,” Pugh said. “It’s an evil of this game you don’t ever want to see happen and when it happens to one of your leaders, it definitely hurts.”
Shipley was the only member of the Cardinals’ starting offensive line the past two years who didn’t miss a single “deflated” game because of an injury. The four starters alongside him this year – Humphries, left guard Mike Iupati, Pugh and right tackle Andre Smith – all spent time on injured reserve last season. Pugh was with the Giants and Smith was with the Bengals.
“I played early in college and I think that helps me in situations like this,” Cole said. “But also coming from Michigan and (coach Jim) Harbaugh, Harbaugh’s staff and Harbaugh’s offense, this gives me a little upper hand here, too, just in terms of learning the offense knowing what to do.”