Braylon Jones

Cardinals Get Down To 53 Players

The source of some strange, unpredicted preseason trades in the past few weeks, the Cardinals have been busy trying to figure out the 53-man roster they’ll open the season with. While some of their biggest cuts came in the days leading up to the deadline and the team is likely to continue making adjustments leading up to opening day, here are the cuts made to officially set team’s initial 53-man roster:

Waived:

Released:

Placed on IR:

Waived/injured:

Veteran running back Clement and former Ravens standout Williams both fell victim to a resurgent Keaontay Ingram, who surpassed them both on the depth chart after getting healthy. That means a roster spot for undrafted rookie Emari Demercado, who will get to reap the unfortunate benefit of Marlon Mack‘s season-ending injury. He’s joined by undrafted wide receiver Daniel Arias and tight end Blake Whiteheart.

The release of the long-time Cardinals long snapper, Brewer, comes as a bit of a surprise as the only other long snapper on the roster, undrafted rookie Matt Hembrough, is currently on injured reserve. They’ll likely target a free agent who is left available after cut day.

Quarterback Kyler Murray was not moved from the physically unable to perform list, nor was cornerback Garrett Williams moved from the non-football injury list. Both will attempt to make returns shortly after the start of the season. Rookie backup center Gaines’ first NFL season is unfortunately over before it could begin after sustaining a knee injury in the team’s preseason finale.

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/18/23

Minor transactions around the league heading into Week 2 of the preseason:

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

Chicago Bears

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Los Angeles Chargers

  • Waived from IR with injury settlement: T Nicolas Melsop

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Ta’amu and Laulile become the 55th and 56th players from the 2023 XFL season to sign an NFL contract. Ta’amu has spent time with five different NFL squads since going undrafted out of Ole Miss in 2019. In 2022, Ta’amu lead the USFL in both passing yards and touchdowns. In this past XFL season, Ta’amu was awarded Offensive Player of the Year honors for his efforts in DC. After gaining starting experience in the USFL and XFL over the past two years, Ta’amu will hope to make his first NFL appearance with his sixth NFL team.

Cowboys Set 53-Man Roster

The Cowboys got their roster down to 53 players today, and to get there, they cut all their backup QB options, their kicker, and their long snapper:

Released:

Waived:

Waived/injured:

Placed on reserve/NFI:

The Cowboys are currently rolling without a second QB behind Dak Prescott after the team moved on from Cooper Rush, Will Grier, and Ben DiNucci. Rush has the most experience of the group, appearing in 10 career games, including five appearances (one start) with Dallas in 2021. The 28-year-old finished last season having completed 30 of his 47 pass attempts for 422 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. The Cowboys also aren’t rostering a kicker or long snapper at the moment, something that will certainly change over the next few days.

Special teams ace C.J. Goodwin could also land back on the active roster once the dust settles. Goodwin has spent the past four seasons in Dallas, and he hasn’t missed a game over the past three years. The 32-year-old finished last season with a career-high 10 tackles.

NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/17/22

Here are today’s reserve/futures deals:

Dallas Cowboys

Las Vegas Raiders

New England Patriots

Wednesday NFL Transactions: NFC East

Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline Tuesday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters. In addition to waiver claims, teams can begin constructing their 16-man practice squads today. These CowboysEaglesGiants and Washington moves are noted below.

Here are Wednesday’s NFC East transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day.

Dallas Cowboys

Signed to practice squad:

New York Giants

Placed on IR:

Signed:

Claimed:

Waived:

Signed to practice squad:

Philadelphia Eagles

Signed to practice squad:

Washington Football Team

Placed on IR:

Signed:

Signed to practice squad:

Cowboys Get Down To 53

More roster cuts to pass along! The Cowboys have now gotten their roster down to 53 as well, making a slew of cuts in the process. Here are the latest cutdown day casualties out of Dallas:

Released:

Waived:

Thompson played in 15 games with the Cowboys last year and started seven, but wasn’t able to crack the 53-man roster this time around. The safety started four games for Dallas the year before in 2019. Sprinkle flashed some potential with Washington in 2019 when he had 241 yards, but he was a non-factor in the passing game last year.

Hamilton also started a couple of games for the Cowboys last year, and the release of several significant contributors shows Mike McCarthy was serious about overhauling that side of the ball. Hardy is the undrafted rookie who has been featured on this year’s season of HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks.’ He’s expected to be added to the practice squad if he clears waivers, Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News tweets.

Cowboys Sign 13 UDFAs

The Cowboys became the latest team to set their UDFA class on Sunday. Dallas agreed to terms with the following 13 undrafted rookies, via Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link).

After using eight of their 11 draft picks to address the defense, the Cowboys clearly intended to load up their UDFA class with skill position guys. Of those receivers it would appear Smith has the best chance of cracking the roster, since the Cowboys gave him $132K in guaranteed money, Aaron Wilson tweets. He got $120K in guaranteed salary and a $12K signing bonus.

Smith never put up huge numbers in the Big Ten, and only had 23 catches for 231 yards in seven games last year, but Dallas thinks he has some potential. Hines, the linebacker from Texas A&M, got $55K guaranteed, Wilson tweets. Hines only played in one game in 2018 due to injury, returned with a solid 2019 season when he had 10.5 tackles for loss, and then opted out of the 2020 campaign. He has impressive burst and athletic ability, but has below average instincts and often has poor tackling form, Lance Zierlein of NFL.com writes.