Arizona Cardinals News & Rumors

Minor NFL Transactions: 11/21/23

Today’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

Cleveland Browns

Indianapolis Colts

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

San Francisco 49ers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Harrison was among the Colts’ final roster cuts in August, but he was immediately retained via the practice squad. Despite that move, the 26-year-old has yet to make an appearance in Indianapolis as a gameday elevation. He will now have the chance to make his Colts debut, having taken the 53-man roster spot of Shaquille Leonard after the latter’s surprise cut.

Muse will be required to miss at least the next four weeks as a result of the IR move. The former Seahawk has played exclusively on special teams to date during his first season with the Chargers, logging a 73% snap share in that capacity. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports Muse could still play later this season, something which will give Los Angeles a boost in the third phase if they are still in playoff contention down the stretch.

Ahmed’s foot injury, coupled with a new round of uncertainty regarding the healthy of rookie sensation De’Von Achane, could leave Miami shorthanded in the backfield. While it remains to be seen if the latter will miss time after coming back from an IR stint, the former will not be available moving forward. Ahmed is out for the season, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. The 24-year-old scored two total touchdowns on 38 touches this year, his fourth with the Dolphins. He is set to hit free agency this offseason, but the injury will no doubt hurt his market.

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 11/21/23

Tuesday’s taxi squad moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Houston Texans

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

  • Released: DB Cameron McCutcheon

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

New York Jets

Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Cardinals LB Kyzir White To Miss Rest Of Season

The Cardinals will be without one of their defensive captains for the rest of the season. The team announced today that linebacker Kyzir White tore his biceps and will be placed on IR. The injury will knock White out for the rest of the 2023 campaign.

After signing a two-year deal with the Cardinals this past offseason, White proceeded to play in every snap for his new squad through the first 10 weeks of the season. He played in the first 26 snaps of yesterday’s game against the Texans, and head coach Jonathan Gannon revealed that the veteran played “five or six plays” with the injury before finally exiting the game.

“It was kind of gut-wrenching to watch, because I didn’t know he tore his bicep and he’s out there playing with one arm,” Gannon said (via the team’s website). “That’s why he is who he is.”

In 11 games this season, White collected 90 tackles, two sacks, and one interception. The former fourth-round pick had a breakout season with the Chargers in 2021, finishing with 144 tackles. He had a one-year stop in Philly in 2022, finishing with 110 tackles.

Josh Woods stepped in as the defensive play caller after White was knocked out of the game. Krys Barnes took on a larger share of snaps with White out of the lineup. The veteran hadn’t seen the field for a defensive snap since Week 3 but finished yesterday’s game having appeared in 30 percent of his team’s defensive plays.

Minor NFL Transactions: 11/18/23

This week’s callups and minor moves heading into Sunday:

Arizona Cardinals

Carolina Panthers:

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

New York Giants

New York Jets

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Commanders

Evans had been called up from the practice squad three times by the Cowboys, meaning he needed to be added to the 53-man roster this week to continue suiting up. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports “several teams” attempted to poach the veteran off the taxi squad, but his decision to remain with Dallas has culminated in today’s move. Evans has logged 74 combined defensive and special teams snaps with the Cowboys so far, recording three tackles.

James was out of the lineup for one game after being designated for return, but he will be eligible to suit up for the upcoming Super Bowl rematch against the Eagles. Mentioned as a trade candidate earlier this year, he will be able to add depth to a WR corps which has underperformed to date, and add to his single catch recorded in his two Kansas City games at the start of the campaign.

Minor NFL Transactions: 11/15/23

Wednesday’s minor roster moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Detroit Lions

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

New York Jets

San Francisco 49ers

Tennessee Titans

So far this year, Zakelj, the second-year interior offensive lineman, has only appeared in four games on special teams, but the team intended for him to compete with free agent signing Jon Feliciano for the backup center job behind starter Jake Brendel. With Aaron Banks out last week, and with the coaches wanting to get Feliciano more involved at right guard anyway, according to Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports, Zakelj became a key backup at center. Unfortunately for Zakelj and the 49ers, a torn bicep will require surgery, taking Zakelj out for the remainder of the season.

Cardinals Claim RB Michael Carter

5:19pm: The Buccaneers and Commanders also put in Carter claims, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets. Both four-win teams reside behind the Cardinals in the waiver order, leading the young running back to the desert.

3:47pm: Michael Carter did not advance far down the waiver priority list. His name stopped at the Cardinals, who submitted a successful claim, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter. The 2-8 team will move see what the third-year back can provide.

The Jets made the surprising decision to waive the backup running back Tuesday. The 2021 draftee is signed through 2024. This marks another reserve RB addition for the Cardinals, who have cycled through a few this season. Carter, 24, is due a nonguaranteed $1.1MM next year.

Both Damien Williams and Tony Jones Jr. emerged as backups during the Cardinals’ stretch without James Conner. The team moved on from both last week, with Conner back in the fold after a four-week IR stay. Despite Conner’s return to the 53-man roster, Arizona will still gauge Carter’s fit in Drew Petzing‘s offense.

One of two Michael Carters the Jets drafted in 2021, the North Carolina alum showed some promise as a rookie. In the Joe DouglasRobert Saleh regime’s first offseason, the Jets chose Carter in Round 4. Carter proceeded to lead the Jets in rushing that season, totaling 639 yards (4.3 per carry) and four touchdowns. The former Javonte Williams Tar Heels teammate nearly reached 1,000 scrimmage yards as a rookie, contributing 325 through the air as well. Carter’s scrimmage-yards total that year paced the Jets by more than 300.

Carter enjoyed that notable rookie season despite missing three games, but with the Jets finishing 4-13, it did not generate too much acclaim. The Jets drafted Breece Hall in the 2022 second round, demoting Carter. The team also signed Dalvin Cook this offseason, bringing in the ex-Vikings Pro Bowler as Hall insurance. While Carter held off Bam Knight for a roster spot this year, the team is expected to give more playing time to rookie fifth-rounder Israel Abanikanda. Carter averaged just 3.5 yards per carry last season, filling in as one of the Jets’ solutions following Hall’s ACL tear.

The Cardinals have kept Keaontay Ingram and rookie UDFA Emari Demercado in place as Conner’s backups. Carter will join the roster as a fourth running back, potentially providing aid on passing downs. That said, Demercado has missed the past two games with a toe injury. Carter will supply more depth to a Cardinals team that could look to him as a multiyear contributor. This regime did not authorize Conner’s three-year, $21MM extension, calling the veteran’s 2024 status into question. For now, Carter profiles as a Conner backup in the again-Kyler Murray-led Cards attack.

Injured Reserve Return Tracker

After a 2022 rule change, teams can activate up to eight players from injured reserve. That has reintroduced some strategy into how franchises proceed with their activations, and teams will again need to be cognizant of their activation counts in 2023.

The NFL had reintroduced IR-return options in the 2010s, after a period in which an IR move meant a player’s season was over. But the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the league to loosen restrictions on IR from 2020-21. Teams were permitted to use unlimited activations to start the decade, but roster math is again a consideration.

Players who land on IR after cutdown day must miss at least four games. Once a team designates a player for return, the activation clock starts. Clubs have 21 days from a player’s return-to-practice date to activate that player. If no activation commences in that window, the player reverts to season-ending IR.

Here is how the NFL’s remaining two IR situations look for Super Bowl LVIII:

Kansas City Chiefs

Activated:

Designated for return:

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 3

San Francisco 49ers

Designated for return:

Reverted to season-ending IR:

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 4

Cardinals Activate RB James Conner From IR

Arizona is getting more than one key pieces of its offense back this weekend. With quarterback Kyler Murray already set to return as the starter in Week 10 for the Cardinals after being activated from injured reserve this week, Arizona will also be returning starting running back James Conner, who has been out since suffering a Week 5 knee injury.

Cardinals staff writer Darren Urban informs that Conner will officially be activated off of IR today with the intention of playing him against the Falcons this Sunday. “(Conner) is our workhorse in the run game, and it will be good to get him back,” head coach Jonathan Gannon said about the running back’s return to the field. “It helps not only Kyler, it helps our team.”

In Conner’s absence, Arizona has mostly relied on the legs of undrafted rookie Emari Demercado. With Demercado reportedly out this week, though, Conner isn’t the only addition the team is making to the running backs room. After waiving him just two days ago, the Cardinals are bringing back Tony Jones Jr. on a practice squad deal. In order to make room for Jones on the practice squad, the team released offensive lineman Vitaliy Gurman.

Jones will be one of two standard gameday elevations from the practice squad for this week’s game. He and Keaontay Ingram will be tasked with backing up Conner in his first game back from IR. The team’s other gameday elevation will be utilized to promote practice squad tackle Jackson Barton for the weekend.

Latest On Cardinals’ Quarterback Plan

Kyler Murray‘s long-awaited return will commence in Week 10. The Cardinals used up Murray’s three-week return-to-practice window, giving the former Pro Bowler effectively a midseason training camp to work in Drew Petzing‘s system. That run-up may be important to how the organization proceeds at quarterback in 2024.

Moving parts exist here, given the Cardinals’ 2024 draft placement at this season’s midpoint. But the Cardinals want to see how Murray functions in their new play-caller’s system before making a determination about the longer-term future, ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano notes.

The Cards are 1-8, but Petzing was able to coax some productive performances from Josh Dobbs, who had arrived just before the season via the Browns trade. Arizona ranks 27th in offensive DVOA, with Clayton Tune‘s disastrous outing in Cleveland making a notable impact on the team’s overall numbers. Exiting their 58-yard offensive showing against the Browns, the Cards rank 31st in passing. Petzing’s system — which came from Kevin Stefanski‘s Browns attack — is seen by some around the league as one that could boost Murray’s stock, The Athletic’s Jeff Howe adds (subscription required). That said, the dual-threat QB the Browns added — Deshaun Watson — has not exactly taken to it during his early run in Ohio.

Murray, 26, has received an extensive buildup period upon returning from his ACL tear. He is nearly 11 months removed from it. Theories about the Cardinals keeping Murray inactive as they determine their future, which could include Drake Maye or Caleb Williams, ended up unfounded. But Murray’s showing stands to impact how the team proceeds next year, regardless of Jonathan Gannon‘s interest in keeping Murray as long as he is the HC.

The Cardinals could be in position to either draft one of the top two QBs or follow in the Bears’ footsteps and auction the pick to accelerate a rebuild that would, in the latter scenario, include Murray as the centerpiece. The Texans have improved to the point it looks unlikely they will land a top-five draft slot for a fourth straight year; Houston traded its 2024 first-rounder to Arizona to move up for Will Anderson in April. It would stand to reason Murray being active will hurt the Cardinals’ chances of securing a top-two pick in the ’24 draft, but the Cardinals’ power structure wants to see the former No. 1 overall pick in this new system to collect more information.

Murray could conceivably restore some of his trade value by staying healthy upon return. But Howe adds that his contract — five years, $230.5MM ($103.3MM fully guaranteed) — is not seen as tradeable. It would cost the Cardinals a record-setting (for now, as Russell Wilson‘s contract remains on the Broncos’ cap sheet) $46MM in dead money if he were traded before June 1. The Cards would owe Murray an $11.9MM guarantee on March 17 — Day 5 of the 2023 league year — if he is still on the roster; that money covers part of his 2025 salary. The year-out guarantee would stand to drive an early trade, but it would be punitive for the Cardinals. And a shortage of teams, Murray’s flashes in the past notwithstanding, would be in line to take on that contract.

Arizona paying part of Murray’s deal could facilitate a better return, but an executive told Howe a Murray release could also be in play — in the event the Cardinals commit to drafting another QB — due to a lack of trade interest. Even in a post-June 1 scenario, the Cardinals would be hit with a $48.3MM dead-money bill in 2024 by cutting the QB they extended in July 2022. A QB-needy team not in position to nab Williams or Maye may also be interested in Murray, though the return would not approach what the Texans received for Watson last year.

The fork-in-the-road moment the Cardinals may soon face will be a storyline to monitor as Murray resumes play. They already dealt Dobbs to clear out a spot, doing so after Gannon had told the media the journeyman would start against the Browns in Week 9. Dobbs took it a step further this week, indicating Gannon informed him he would not be traded.

Went to sleep, woke up Tuesday morning with a text from my agent saying, ‘Hey, you could be traded today because it’s the trade deadline,” Dobbs said on his Torchbearers podcast (via Yardbarker). “When I had the meeting with [Gannon] in Arizona, he looked at me in the face and he said, ‘You’re not being traded. You’re not being released. You’re going to be here in Arizona.”

After Gannon confirmed the Cardinals’ course change on Oct. 30, the team pulled the trigger on the Dobbs trade hours before the Oct. 31 deadline. The Cardinals sent Dobbs and a conditional seventh-round pick to the Vikings for a 2024 sixth-rounder. Dobbs, who made eight starts as a Cardinal, will start again for the Vikings in Week 10. It is not uncommon to see coaches and GMs backtrack on previous claims as trade rumors circulate, and it is also possible Gannon intended to start Dobbs once again but ended up being overruled.

The 28-year-old passer, after replacing a concussed Jaren Hall, piloted the Vikings to an upset win in Atlanta despite barely knowing Kevin O’Connell‘s system. Tune is now positioned as Murray’s backup, but the next two months will provide some answers about Arizona’s post-2023 QB direction.

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 11/10/23

Today’s practice squad moves heading into the 10th weekend of the NFL season:

Arizona Cardinals

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Minnesota Vikings

Seattle Seahawks

  • Released: NT Matthew Gotel

Morgan was signed on Wednesday to serve as an extra arm in practice amid the season-long loss of Kirk Cousins and with backup quarterback Jaren Hall still in concussion protocol, leaving only Sean Mannion behind recent acquisition Joshua Dobbs at quarterback. The undrafted free agent rookie was originally signed by the Steelers, but after not making the initial 53-man roster or practice squad to start the season in Pittsburgh, Morgan returned to his alma mater at the University of Minnesota in order to serve as an offensive analyst on the Golden Gophers staff.