Arizona Cardinals linebacker Kyzir White is back for his seventh year and second in the Cardinals uniform after a torn biceps cost him the final six games last season.

Despite his absence, White led the Cardinals with 90 tackles. He also recorded two sacks, nine tackles for loss, one interception, three passes defensed and two QB hits.

White, who played every snap of the 2023 season before his injury, said Burns & Gambo by Arizona Sports on Wednesday that he initially thought the injury was a “bad cramp.”

“I sit there and pray, please let me be good,” White said. “I know it’s going to wear off soon, but it won’t go away, and I’m like, damn it.”

Then Drew Krueger, the Cardinals head coach, looked at White and asked him to show him his arm.

“I said, ‘Yeah, I’m OK.’ You know, deep down I knew I wasn’t OK,” White said. “But he saw my arm. I said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘Do you think it’s something serious?’ And no, he said, ‘Yeah, it’s serious, come in the tent.'”

The injury occurred in the Cardinals’ 21-16 loss to the Houston Texans in Week 11. Up until that point, White had played all 683 snaps for the Cardinals on defense and remained in the game for five or six snaps after the injury.

“(Krueger) just knew because he said my bicep was collapsed,” White said. “I guess it’s kind of like that. It looked like it was sticking out and stuff. So he just knew something.

“I mean, your adrenaline is pumping and you’re in the middle of chaos. I mean, I’m trying to go out there and put it all on the line for my team. So, it was just like, all that adrenaline. I was like, man, no way. I thought, nothing broke here. Like, I’m fine, you know, I mean, but yeah, then, you know, unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way and it broke right off.”

White has since undergone surgery and a lengthy rehab, but although he was heartbroken by the injury, he made a point of attending meetings and practices with the team, which helped him cope with the injury.

“Oh yeah, it broke my heart, man. I went home and told myself that even though I was feeling down and down, I was not going to try and let it show. I still went to meetings, I still went to practice, I still sat on the sidelines for hours watching, I still stayed in touch with the guys, I still tried to fit in because I feel like if I had been alone, with no one, I really, really, definitely would have been a lot worse off.”

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