Arizona Cardinals cornerback Robert Alford has a tibia fracture and is expected to miss the first half of the 2019 season, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media. The veteran initially suffered the injury in practice on Tuesday and head coach Kliff Kingsbury said at the time that he expected him to miss "an extended amount of time." 

Now, we know that it's likely going to be the first chunk of the year. Rapoport did add that based off the early timetable it looks like Alford could come off IR in the second half of the year. 

After spending the first six years of his career with the Atlanta Falcons, Alford signed a three-year, $22.5 million deal with Arizona back in February. The 30-year-old started in all 15 games he played for the Falcons last season and totaled 50 tackles to go along with 11 passes defended. 

Alford going down does add insult to injury for the Arizona secondary, which is already set to be without star Patrick Peterson as he is set to serve a six-game suspension for violating the league's performance enhancing drug policy. Alford was originally set to start opposite of Peterson when he first arrived to Arizona. Following the news of Peterson's suspension, he was in line to be the Cards' No. 1 corner to start the year before suffering this injury. 

With those two starers sidelined for the first half of the year, the Cardinals will lean heavily on Tramaine Brock and rookie Byron Murphy.