Cardinals sack leader Dennis Gardeck tore ACL vs. Chargers

Arizona Cardinals pass rusher Dennis Gardeck suffered a season-ending ACL injury Monday in a win against the Los Angeles Chargers, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo first reported.

Head coach Jonathan Gannon confirmed the news on Tuesday. It is not clear which knee Gardeck injured on Monday.

Gardeck, who leads Arizona with three sacks through seven games, tore his right ACL in 2020, the second ACL tear to that knee.

That ended a career-high seven-sack season, and even though Gardeck played in 14 games the next season, it took the undrafted player out of Sioux Falls College time to get back to himself. He didn’t record a sack in 2021 and added just one the next year before turning the production up a notch last year, posting six sacks and a career-high 46 tackles in the first year under new head coach Jonathan Gannon.

As an undrafted rookie, Gardeck made the Cardinals’ roster as a special teamer and off-ball linebacker in 2018 under the Steve Wilks regime but was converted to an outside linebacker under Kliff Kingsbury and then-defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.

He is a four-time captain (2020-23) for Arizona.

Cardinals pass rush gets more thin with Dennis Gardeck’s injury

Arizona lost expected starting outside linebacker BJ Ojulari before the season, leaving Gardeck and Zaven Collins to fill in.

Gardeck did his part before getting hurt with his team-leading three sacks, a forced fumble and six tackles for loss.

Collins has recorded a sack and four tackles for loss, which is second on the team.

Next up in the pecking order is midseason pickup Julian Okwara and 2022 seventh-round pick Jesse Luketa.

The Cardinals will also hope their interior group can create more pass rush to help the edge rushers. Tackle Dante Stills is second on the team with two sacks, as is Naquan Jones. both have played a limited amount of sacks and have seen more playing time since injuries to starters Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols, who are out for the season.

Arizona also is on the cusp of debuting rookie first-round pick Darius Robinson, whose practice window was opened on Oct. 9 after he started the season on injured reserve because of a calf injury.