The Arizona Cardinals lost a potential starting cornerback for the season for the second time on Friday. After Sean Murphy-Bunting had an offseason knee injury that landed him on the NFI (non-football injury) list, ending his season, Star Thomas V tore his ACL on Friday in training camp.

This impacts the position battle for both starting roles and players battling simply for roster spots.

Let’s take a look at the impact.

Star Thomas injury: How it impacts the starting lineup

We can presume that Garrett Williams has the nickel cornerback job locked down. Last season, Murphy-Bunting, Thomas and 2024 second-round pick Max Melton rotated the two boundary cornerback jobs, with Thomas and Murphy-Bunting getting more playing time.

Entering camp, the battle was between Thomas, Melton and rookie Will Johnson, the Cardinals’ second-round pick this year.

Now, with Thomas out for the season, unless a player like 2024 third-round Elijah Jones, who was on inured reserve all last season, Kei’Trel Clark or rookie fifth-round pick Denzel Burke can push their way into the starting conversation, the two outside corner starters will be Melton and Johnson.

The Cardinals could also bring in a veteran.

Star Thomas injury: How it impacts the depth

Last season, the Cardinals kept five cornerbacks on the roster.

Before Thomas got hurt, it looked like he would have been a lock for the roster unless he got traded, and he would have been a player with a little bit of trade value.

That would have left one roster spot available for Clark, Burke and Jones.

Now there are two roster spots for the three players. Clark played some last year and head coach Jonathan Gannon noted he was having a good camp so far. Burke is a rookie and Jones didn’t play last season because he was on injured reserve.

The injury also could open the door for Jaylon Jones, signed in the offseason but has been more a special teams player in his career, to have a better chance at cracking the roster.

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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: How Star Thomas’ injury impacts the Cardinals’ CB competition