Tyrann Mathieu has 20-percent chance of playing

Arizona Cardinals second-year free safety Tyrann Mathieu is recovering from last year’s torn ACL, and there was once optimism that he would be able to play in tomorrow night’s big opener against another playoff contending team locked in a tough division in the San Diego Chargers. Mathieu’s health could be huge, because the Chargers have an excellent passing attack led by Philip Rivers. But over the past week, it’s seemed like Mathieu has become unlikely to play tomorrow, and it now looks like there’s very little chance we’ll see him out there.

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FOX Sports’s Jay Glazer reports, via Rotoworld, that the Cardinals defensive back has an 80-percent chance of missing the Chargers game, so he’s highly unlikely. It sounds smarter for the Cardinals to give him the opener off in order to avoid any chances of aggravation, and it’s always important to make sure that a young star player like Mathieu is fully healthy for the long run of the regular season.

With Mathieu out, the focus will be on Rashad Johnson, Tony Jefferson, and maybe even first-round rookie Deone Bucannon at the safety position. The Cardinals have plenty of talent in the secondary to make do, but the biggest battle will definitely be the joyous one-on-one contest between Patrick Peterson and Keenan Allen on the outside.

Mathieu is a full-blown game-time decision, but I bet he’s out and isn’t even a lock for Week 2 anyway.

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