The Cardinals and linebacker Arthur Moats have agreed to terms on a one-year deal, a source tells Mike Florio of PFT (Twitter link). Moats met with Arizona on Wednesday morning and wound up with a contract by the afternoon.
An eight-year NFL veteran, Moats spent four years with the Bills and the other four with the Steelers. The 30-year-old started 12 games and played 50% of the Steelers’ defensive snaps as recently as 2015, but his role was drastically reduced last year. Pittsburgh turned to younger defenders such as Bud Dupree, so Moats only saw action on 8.4% of the club’s snaps.
The Cardinals project to start Josh Bynes and Deone Bucannon at the inside linebacker spots with former University of Arizona tackling machine Scooby Wright among those in support. Moats could provide some additional veteran experience in that area, as well as special teams play.
Prior to his signing with the Cardinals, the Falcons were the only other known team to have expressed interest in Moats.
Arizona a.k.a. Pittsburgh West strikes again. I hope Moats does well there. He barely played last season and didn’t look great when he did. But he’s good depth in small doses, can play special teams, and I’ve never heard or read one bad word about the guy as a teammate. He also has a future as an analyst, he’s really bright and engaging as an interview.
I just noticed an error in the article, though: Moats is an outside LB, at least he was with the Steelers, not an ILB. They talked about playing him inside last season but it never happened, and all his previous Steeler work came as an outside pass rusher.