We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Arizona Cardinals
Cincinnati Bengals
Dallas Cowboys
Houston Texans
New Orleans Saints
As shown by Le’Veon Bell‘s recent deal with the Chiefs, big name free agents can come available at any point throughout the season. His contract wasn’t particularly pricey, but teams like to keep cash on hand during the year, especially when mulling potential trades before the deadline. Excess cap room can also be rolled over from year-to-year and give clubs the opportunity to lock up their most valuable players with extensions.
Here are the most recent figures for each team, via Over The Cap:
Previously ruled out for the Cardinals’ Monday night game, J.R. Sweezy will miss a chunk of their season. The Cards placed the starting guard on IR. Both Sweezy and Arizona defensive lineman Rashard Lawrence landed on IR Saturday.
The former Seahawks starter suffered an elbow injury that will sideline him for at least three games. Lawrence is dealing with a calf malady. Sweezy rated as Pro Football Focus’ No. 54 guard through five games this season.
Since missing the entire 2016 season and being a Buccaneers cut, Sweezy has been a dependable lineman. The Seahawks brought him back and used him as a starter throughout their 2018 playoff season, and Sweezy has started 21 straight games since signing with the Cardinals in 2019. The Cards have, however, dealt with extensive injuries up front in recent years. This marks a key setback for this year’s more successful squad.
Despite the Cards employing veteran Max Garcia, third-year blocker Justin Murray will replace Sweezy in Arizona’s starting lineup. Murray started 12 games at right tackle last season. Murray was already seeing time at guard in a rotation with Sweezy and Justin Pugh. He has played 19% of Arizona’s offensive snaps this season.
Cardinals linebacker Chandler Jones is done for the year, according to head coach Kliff Kingsbury. Jones was hoping to avoid it, but he’s now set to undergo season-ending biceps surgery. 
Jones, 30, managed 19 sacks in 2019 and led the league with eight forced fumbles. A first-round pick of the Patriots back in 2012, Jones hasn’t missed a game since joining the Cardinals in 2016. Before the injury, Jones started a perfect 69 games in a row. That streak is now over — ditto for his run of four straight seasons with at least eleven sacks.
Arizona is above .500 and in the thick of the NFC playoff hunt, but two of their three wins have come against the likes of the Washington Football Team and the Jets. They’ve looked bad in their two losses to the Lions and Panthers, and reserves like Jordan Phillips won’t be able to replace Jones’ production.
Jones was hoping to start extension talks with the Cardinals sometime soon, but those discussions will be tabled for a while. The veteran, 31 in February, is under contract for 2021 with a $15.5MM base salary.
The Cardinals – sans Jones – will face the Cowboys on Monday night.
Prince Amukamara is officially headed to the desert. We heard last week that the Cardinals were hoping to sign Amukamara once he cleared COVID-19 protocols, and now Dan Graziano of ESPN.com tweets that the deal is official. 
Interestingly, it’s a practice squad deal and he won’t be on the active roster initially. To make room on the practice squad Arizona released another veteran, receiver Jaron Brown. Amukamara was cut by the Bears back in February to clear cap space, then released by the Raiders shortly before the start of the regular season. Arizona has struggled in coverage at times and Amukamara has loads of starting experience, so this match makes some sense.
The Nebraska product has started 30 games over the past two seasons, and at 31 he should still have something left in the tank physically. The Cardinals of course have Patrick Peterson, but have struggled at corner outside of him.
The 19th overall pick of the 2011 draft, Amukamara will likely be on the active 53 before too long. The Giants were reportedly interested in bringing him back, but for whatever reason it didn’t work out. Brown was with the Cardinals from 2013-17, and has often showed flashes of promise as a deep threat during his career. With the Seahawks last season, he had 16 catches for 220 yards and two touchdowns. The year before that he had five scores with Seattle.
With most of Week 5 in the books, we bring you a way-too-early look at the current order for the 2021 NFL draft. For non-playoff teams, the draft order will be determined by the inverted 2020 standings, plus a series of tiebreakers, starting with strength of schedule. After that, the same goes for the six clubs eliminated from each round of the postseason, with the final two picks determined by the outcome of the Super Bowl.
Here’s where things stand in the race to the bottom:
The Cardinals snapped a two-game skid to improve to 3-2, but they’ll be without a key piece of the defense moving forward. Defensive end Chandler Jones suffered a biceps injury during the win over the Jets, and head coach Kliff Kingsbury acknowledged after the game that it was “probably” season-ending.
That would indicate the team believes it’s a biceps tear. A first-round pick of the Patriots back in 2012, Jones has consistently been one of the league’s better pass-rushers in recent years. Arizona’s defense has been up and down, and the defensive front isn’t exactly overflowing with talent outside of Jones. Guys like Jordan Phillips, who has two sacks in four games, will be leaned on even more heavily to get pressure.
Jones came to the desert in a 2016 trade, and he hasn’t missed a game since. He started a perfect 69 games in a row for the Cardinals, but that streak will come to an end now. He’s had at least 11 sacks in each of his four seasons with Arizona, and he had 19 last year.
Arizona is above .500 and in the thick of the NFC playoff hunt, but skeptics would be inclined to point out two of their three wins have come against Washington and the Jets. They’ve looked bad in their two losses to the Lions and Panthers, and have been anything but steady. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph has his work cut out for him now.
As for Jones’ financial situation, he’s under contract through the 2021 season. Interestingly we just heard a couple of weeks ago that there had been no extension talks between the two sides, to the surprise of some rival executives. Jones will turn 31 in February, and it’ll be interesting to see what effect this injury has on contract discussions this offseason.
Here is the latest barrage of Saturday minor moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Rams
Miami Dolphins
Minnesota Vikings
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans
Washington Football Team
The “presumptive positive” test result for a Jets player has proven to be a false positive, per a club announcement. With that, their upcoming game against the Cardinals is on track to be played as scheduled.
“This evening, we received negative PCR COVID-19 test results for all players, coaches and personnel,” the team said in a statement. “Following a presumptive positive COVID-19 test and out of an abundance of caution to ensure everyone’s health and safety, we sent all players and personnel home this morning. We also initiated all NFL mandated protocols including player isolation, subsequent testing, and contact tracing.
“As we have thus far, we will continue to follow required health and safety protocols in the best interests of our coaches, players, staff and community. We look forward to our game this Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.”
This comes on the heels of some good news for the Patriots and Titans, who received new positives in the last week. The latest round of testing came back negative for both clubs, which means they could resume practice on Saturday if everything remains stable.
Not long after we received some good news on the COVID-19 front with respect to the Patriots and Titans, we learned that there is some cause for concern on the Jets. According to ProFootballTalk, a New York player has a “presumptive positive” test result (Twitter link).
The player with the presumptive positive has been re-tested, and all Jets players and coaches have been sent home out of an abundance of caution. As Rich Cimini of ESPN.com tweets, the results of the retest are expected back at some point today.
Gang Green is set to play host to the Cardinals this week, and Adam Schefter of ESPN.com points out that Arizona was supposed to make its cross-country flight today (Twitter link). Obviously, those travel plans are in flux at the moment.
We will keep you posted as we learn more. But as NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills has stated, there were always going to be positive tests this year. The key will be avoiding outbreaks like the one that has plagued the Titans.