The Arizona Cardinals are coming off their biggest win of the 2025 NFL season and now face one of the best teams in the NFL.
The Cardinals saved their season with a win over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 9, but they will face the Seattle Seahawks in Week 10, and that just became more difficult. On Friday morning, Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon announced three key defenders will miss Sunday’s game, and a rookie will wear the green dot on defense.
Who Will the Cardinals Miss And What Does It Mean?
The Cardinals walked away from Dallas with the win, but also traveled home with a few key injuries that did not improve throughout the week.
CB Will Johnson
Gannon announced on Friday morning that cornerback Will Johnson will not make it to the game against the Seahawks.
“He’s got a hip contusion/glute deal going on. We just walked through on Wednesday and he honestly didn’t do as well as I thought (he would),” Gannon said. “We knew he was sore coming out of the game … and then Wednesday he struggled to walk through.”
Health was the main concern for Johnson coming out of college, and the main reason he dropped to the Cardinals in the second round. The rookie cornerback missed the final six games of his college career at Michigan with turf toe and missed his pro day and part of mini-camp with a hamstring injury.
Then, Johnson missed Weeks 3 and 4 with a groin injury, and now he’s out Week 10 with a hip contusion. However, when Johnson’s been on the field, he’s played fantastically. The Cardinals’ rookie ranks No. 7 among all cornerbacks in the NFL, according to PFSN’s CB Impact.
Gannon explained Will Johnson’s injury:
“He’s got a hip contusion/glute deal going on. We just walked through on Wednesday and he honestly didn’t do as well as I thought (he would). We knew he was sore coming out of the game … and then Wednesday he struggled to walk through.”
— Theo Mackie (@theo_mackie) November 7, 2025
Johnson ranks No. 5 among all cornerbacks with six passes defended and has 19 tackles and a forced fumble through six games.
With Johnson out, the Cardinals will need cornerback Kei’Trel Clark to step up. The third-year corner out of Louisville has played in seven games this season and collected 18 tackles and two passes defended.
LB Mack Wilson Sr.
Linebacker Mack Wilson Sr. will not make it against Seattle due to the rib injury he sustained against the Cowboys.
This is a huge blow to the middle of the Cardinals’ defense. Wilson is Arizona’s highest graded linebacker, according to PFSN’s LB Impact, scoring more than five points above the league average.
Wilson is also the play-caller on defense. Through eight games, the Cardinals’ leader has 60 tackles, three TFLs, six passes defended, an interception, and a forced fumble. Wilson also has six quarterback pressures and a quarterback hit.
In Wilson’s absence, rookie linebacker Cody Simon will wear the green dot on Sunday.
Simon was drafted in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft out of Ohio State. The rookie linebacker has played in seven games this year and collected nine tackles and a forced fumble. The forced fumble came in the Cowboys game when he filled in for Wilson.
CB Max Melton
Cornerback Max Melton left the game against the Cowboys with a concussion and has yet to clear concussion protocol. Gannon said on Friday that Melton will not play against the Seahawks on Sunday.
With both Melton and Johnson out on Saturday, Clark and Denzel Burke will have to step up. However, they both played well against the Cowboys in limited snaps.
Burke was drafted in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft out of Ohio State. The rookie cornerback has played in eight games this year and has 14 tackles, five passes defended, and an interception.
The Cardinals’ rookie is actually the second-highest rated corner on the team, according to PFSN’s CB Impact, behind Johnson. However, Burke filled in against the Seahawks in their Week 4 matchup and had his worst performance of the season, earning a D+ grade.
The Cardinals will need a better performance from their rookie on Sunday if they want a different result from the game.
#AZCardinals will be without CB Will Johnson, CB Max Melton, and LB Mack Wilson Sr. against Seahawks.
LB BJ Ojulari won’t be activated yet. #AZvsSEA
— Darren Urban (@Cardschatter) November 7, 2025
Despite missing both Johnson and Melton on Sunday, it appears that the Cardinals will have cornerback Garrett Williams, who will be very important against Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
It is worth noting that both Johnson and Williams missed the first matchup between the two teams, and the Cardinals’ only loss was by a walk-off field goal. However, the absence of Melton and Johnson will still be crucial.
The other notable injury update Gannon gave on Friday morning was that edge rusher B.J. Ojulari will not be activated for Sunday’s game.
Ojulari returned to practice last week, but after not playing in more than a year, and a short week before Seattle, Gannon said the Cardinals’ edge rusher will not be ready to go.