Cardinals rookie RB Jeremiyah Love to be sidelined a week with ankle injury

Jeremiyah Love's preseason has been paused.

The Cardinals rookie running back will be sidelined for a week due to an ankle injury suffered during his preseason debut on Thursday night, coach Mike LaFleur announced on Saturday.

"This week and then we'll kind of go from there and reevaluate," LaFleur said. "Honestly, all the focus is on August 15th, Saturday. Here we are in our Tempe block (of practice). We'll kind of reevaluate going into next week. But he will be out this week."

Love dazzled in his first preseason performance against the Raiders, ripping off a couple of 10-plus-yard runs on his way to an 11-carry, 58-yard night that also included three catches for 14 yards. His night ended prior to halftime, seemingly because he had shown enough to warrant rest, but we now know he was also sidelined due to the ankle injury, which LaFleur explained was "a little bit more sore than we were anticipating."

What was once a crowded running backs room is now thinner than anticipated. Veteran James Conner, (foot) hasn't participated in 11-on-11 action yet, and Trey Benson remains out due to a knee injury, meaning Arizona might have to lean more on offseason addition Tyler Allgeier and backup Zonovan "Bam" Knight in the next two weeks of the preseason.