Mathieu heads list of Arizona Cardinals inactives

The Cardinals will be without Mathieu in their secondary for the second straight game. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

For the second straight week, the Arizona Cardinals will be without the services of star safety Tyrann Mathieu. Last week, Mathieu had surgery to repair his broken thumb and he was expected to miss at least a couple of weeks to recover.

Here’s the entire list of inactive Cardinals for Week 15 against the St. Louis Rams.

"S Tyrann MathieuLB Kenny DemensDT Alameda Ta’amuOG Anthony SteenDE Josh MauroOG Paul FanaikaDE Kareem Martin"

The big news here is Antonio Cromartie being active. The veteran cornerback was carted off the field during last week’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs with what was feared to be an Achilles injury, but he’s good to go tonight. The Cardinals are going to need Cromartie against a Rams pass attack which has been better in recent weeks.

It was also interesting to see that newest Cardinal Chris Clemons is active as well. Clemons, who was just signed to a contract on Monday, wasn’t even able to go through a full practice due to the short week, but he’ll play tonight. It’s probably unlikely that he sees a ton of playing time unless there’s an injury to a member of the secondary.

No Fanaika for the second straight week means that Jonathan Cooper will earn another start at left guard while Ted Larsen will move over to the right side. In his first career start in Week 14, Cooper was up and down in pass protection, but looked real good in the run game opening up holes for newcomer Kerwynn Williams.

Josh Mauro being on this list means that rookie Ed Stinson returns to Arizona’s rotation on their defensive line. Having not played since Week 11, the former Alabama player was impressive before he went down with an injury.