For the second straight season, Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Jonah Williams is ending his NFL season on injured reserve.
Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon announced on Friday the Cardinals had placed the former Alabama All-American on injured reserve.
NFL rules require players on injured reserve to miss at least four games, but Gannon said Williams would miss Arizona’s remaining seven games.
“He’s a starter, good player,” Gannon said. “Just he wasn’t going to be able to play the rest of the year. He needs to have surgery.”
Until he sustained a shoulder injury during a 44-22 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Nov. 9, Williams had played every Arizona offensive snap at right tackle. The injury caused Williams to miss Arizona’s 41-22 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday before the IR decision this week.
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Fourteen-year veteran Kelvin Beachum started in Williams’ place against San Francisco. A groin injury kept Beachum out of practice on Wednesday and Thursday and limited his participation on Friday.
Beachum’s injury could put undrafted rookie Josh Fryar at right tackle in Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Fryar has played 40 offensive snaps this season.
Last season, Williams sustained a knee injury in the Cardinals’ 15th game last season and spent the final two contests on injured reserve. It was his second trip to IR in 2024. Williams also suffered a knee injury in the season-opening game and spent the next nine contests on injured reserve. Williams played in six games last season.
Williams is headed toward free agency in March if he is not re-signed by Arizona. The Cardinals signed Williams to a two-year, $30 million contract as an NFL free agent in 2024 after he’d played every offensive snap of the 2023 season at right tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals.
A unanimous All-American for Alabama in 2018, Williams joined the Cincinnati Bengals as the 11th selection in the 2019 NFL Draft. Williams missed his rookie season because of a shoulder injury, and Cincinnati won two games. In his second season, when Williams played 10 games around injuries, the Bengals won four games. But in his third season, Cincinnati won the AFC championship before falling to the Los Angeles Rams 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13, 2022.
Williams started at left tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals in the first 47 games of his career. But after the Bengals signed four-time Pro Bowler Orlando Brown Jr. in free agency, they put Brown at left tackle and shifted Williams to right tackle for 2023.
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