Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer suffered a significant injury just a week after Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers was lost for the season.
Palmer broke his left arm in the Cardinals' 33-0 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at London on Sunday. He will need surgery on the arm and coach Bruce Arians said he expects the quarterback to miss eight weeks.
Palmer was attempting a deep throw to wide receiver J.J. Nelson with 5:48 remaining in the first half when he took a hard hit from Rams inside linebacker Alec Ogletree. The hit led to an interception that Lamarcus Joyner returned 29 yards, and Palmer, who finished 10 for 18 for 122 yards and the interception, slowly walked off the field holding his left arm close to his chest following the play.
"That's a real gut punch to lose your best offensive player, your quarterback," receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. "There's no really positive way to sum it up, honestly. You say you have to go forward and you have to do things, but we all know that's a tough pill to swallow for us."
Miami lost quarterback Jay Cutler due to a chest injury early in the third quarter of a 31-28 win over the New York Jets, and Baltimore lost leading receiver Mike
Wallace following a hit from Vikings safety Andrew Sendejo in a 24-16 loss at Minnesota. The Dallas Cowboys lost kicker Dan Bailey to a groin injury in the first half of a 40-10 win at San Francisco, and Cleveland iron man left tackle Joe Thomas could miss the rest of the season after injuring his left triceps in a 12-9 overtime loss to Tennessee.
Palmer's injury leaves Drew Stanton, who has been the backup since the two joined the team prior to the 2013 season, to step in and lead the offense after the Cardinals return from their bye week.
Stanton, a 10-year veteran, completed just 5 of 14 passes for 62 yards and an interception in the Cardinals' first shutout loss since Dec. 9, 2012. The Cardinals also have Blaine Gabbert, who started 13 games for the 49ers the last two seasons, but he has been the inactive third quarterback for each of their first seven games.
When asked if he would consider turning to Gabbert instead of Stanton, Arians said no.
"We played with Drew before, you know," Arians said. "Drew's played and won a lot of games for us. All the confidence in he and Blaine to step up and take over the quarterback job."
Cutler, who is believed to have suffered a cracked rib that will force him to miss at least one start, threw for two touchdowns and went to the locker room after being hit by linebacker Jordan Jenkins with the Dolphins trailing 21-14. After the Jets went up by two touchdowns, Matt Moore threw scoring passes to Kenny Stills covering 28 and 2 yards to tie the game and Cody Parkey's 39-yard field goal in the final minute won it.