Today’s minor moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
The hand fracture Hakeem Butler suffered will end his rookie season early. Butler will be placed on the Cardinals’ IR list, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
Butler will not be carried through to the Cardinals’ 53-man roster and will instead be placed on IR now. He will be out for the season. The fourth-round pick suffered an avulsion fracture recently and was expected to be out until at least October. His first season will now become a developmental year of sorts.
The Cardinals appeared to prepare for this by signing Michael Crabtree. They drafted two other receivers — Andy Isabella and KeeSean Johnson — and have Christian Kirk back to reprise his role as Larry Fitzgerald‘s top sidekick.
An Iowa State product, Butler broke out in 2018 with the Cyclones. He posted 1,318 yards and nine touchdown receptions. For a Cardinals team that has a 36-year-old wideout playing on a year-to-year basis, Butler still profiles as a key player in the long term.
Andre Branch‘s Cardinals stay did not last too long. The team will release the veteran defensive end less than a month after signing him, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
The Cardinals signed the former Jaguars and Dolphins edge player shortly after training camp began. After the Dolphins cut Branch earlier this offseason, the Cards were the only team to bring him in for a visit or workout. He combined for 10 sacks between the 2016-17 seasons but registered just 1.5 in 14 games last season.
This stands to be Branch’s age-30 season. The Cards added Terrell Suggs and Brooks Reed as Chandler Jones sidekick options. They also claimed Jeff Holland, who came to Denver as a UDFA during Vance Joseph‘s stay, with their No. 1 overall waiver priority.
The Eagles and Cardinals have agreed to a trade. Safety Rudy Ford, who was a sixth-round pick in 2017, will head to Philadelphia. Defensive tackle Bruce Hector will head to Arizona, as NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports (Twitter link).
Hector came into the league in 2018 out of the University of South Florida. He was not selected in the 2018 draft but found his way onto the Eagles’ roster, appearing in eight games as a rookie and recording a half-sack. The big man was unlikely to make Philadelphia’s final roster this year.
Ford, who played college ball at Auburn, hasn’t carved out a major role on defense during his two seasons in the league. The 5’11” safety has top level speed and has played on Arizona’s special teams.
It’s a done deal. The Cardinals have, at long last, signed veteran wide receiver Michael Crabtree, per an official team announcement. Crabtree nearly signed with Arizona earlier this month, but the pact was called off at the last minute.
During their prior round of negotiations with Crabtree, the Cardinals reportedly offered Crabtree a one-year deal with a $2.5MM base value. That contract also contained performance-based incentives that could have increased its total value to $4.5MM. Crabtree, who earned $8MM during his 2018 campaign with the Ravens, was “taken aback” by the offer. Arizona later increased its proposal, tweets Vic Tafur of the Athletic.
The Cardinals were in search of wideout help two weeks ago when discussing a deal with Crabtree, and subsequent events have only further elucidated Arizona’s need for another pass-catcher. Fourth-round rookie Hakeem Butler struggled during training camp and could miss the 2019 season after fracturing his hand, while free agent addition Kevin White was released earlier today.
New Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury is expected to deploy “10” personnel — 1 running back, zero tight ends, four wide receivers — as his primary offensive package. Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk are locks to start in that formation, leaving Crabtree to compete with rookies Andy Isabella and KeeSean Johnson for time as Arizona’s third or fourth receiver.
Crabtree will bring a veteran presence to a young Cardinals locker room, but Arizona will hope he can produce better offensive results than he did with the Ravens in 2018. Crabtree, 34, posted only 54 receptions on 100 targets with Baltimore, the lowest catcher percentage of his career, and scored just three touchdowns, the fewest he’s managed in a full season during his NFL tenure.
Advanced metrics didn’t paint a rosier picture of Crabtree’s 2018 campaign. Among the 43 wideouts who received at least 83 targets last season, Crabtree ranked 42nd in Pro Football Focus‘ yards per route run, ahead of only Buffalo’s Zay Jones. Meanwhile, Crabtree ranked 74th among 84 qualifers in Football Outsiders‘ DYAR and 75th in DVOA, both of which measure value over an average replacement player.
While Crabtree didn’t exactly light on the world on fire with Joe Flacco under center, his production dwindled when run-first Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson entering the starting lineup. With Flacco starting in Baltimore’s first nine games, Crabtree averaged 8.4 targets, 4.6 receptions, 52.4 yards, and 0.2 touchdowns per game. When Jackson took over for the club’s final seven contests, Crabtree dropped to a 3.4/1.9/19.3/0.1 line.
The Cardinals have released wide receiver Kevin White, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
White, the seventh overall selection in the 2015 draft, inked a one-year, $1.5MM deal with Arizona earlier this year which contained $400K in guaranteed money. While he was viewed as a longshot to make the Cardinals’ roster, White’s chances theoretically got better when fellow pass-catcher Hakeem Butler went down with a hand injury earlier this week. However, Butler’s health questions weren’t enough to save White’s roster spot.
Various injuries have cost White time over the past four seasons, with shin and shoulder ailments doing the most damage. White missed the entirety of his rookie campaign, and subsequently appeared in only 16 games in the following three years. 2018 actually marked White’s healthiest year (he played in nine games), but he only posted four receptions for 92 yards.
New Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury is expected to use a four-wide receiver look quite frequently during his debut season, and with White out of the picture, Larry Fitzgerald, Christian Kirk, Andy Isabella, and KeeSean Johnson are now clearly the top four wideouts on Arizona’s depth chart.
The Cardinals could be down a wide receiver this season. Fourth-round pick Hakeem Butler is a candidate for injured reserve after suffering an avulsion fracture in his hand, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
Butler has missed the last two practices with the injury and the initial word is that he would be out for the remainder of the preseason. After further testing, it now appears that his season is in jeopardy.
The Cardinals invested a good deal in their WR group by drafting Andy Isabella in the second round, KeeSean Johnson in the sixth round, and Butler in the fourth. Assuming those two rooks make the cut, the Cardinals could be set with a top five including them plus Larry Fitzgerald, Christian Kirk, and Kevin White. Other notables such as Damiere Byrd and Pharoh Cooper are also pushing to make the 53-man roster.
Clinton McDonald isn’t looking to hang up his cleats just yet. The veteran defensive tackle worked out for the Cardinals today, reports ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter). However, the two sides “could not agree to terms.” Schefter notes that the 32-year-old wants to continue playing.
The 2009 seventh-rounder spent the first two years of his career with the Bengals organization before getting traded to Seattle in 2011. He developed into a reliable rotation lineman for the Seahawks, and he compiled 35 tackles and 5.5 sacks during the team’s 2013 run to the Super Bowl.
He ended up earning a somewhat lucrative four-year deal with the Buccaneers following that season, and he managed to get another two-year deal with Denver last offseason. However, he was released by the Broncos following the preseason, and he proceeded to play in 15 games for the Raiders in 2018.
The Cardinals have moved on from a handful of defensive lineman over the past few months. Former first-rounder Robert Nkemdiche and free-agent addition Darius Philon were both released following their respective arrests.
More bad news for the Cardinals’ secondary. Cornerback Robert Alford has suffered a tibia fracture, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (Twitter link). He’ll be sidelined for about two months, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter), leaving Arizona dangerously short-handed to start the season. 
The Alford injury stings a bit more after star cornerback Patrick Peterson was slapped with a six-game suspension for a PED violation. At minimum, the Cardinals’ pass defense is looking paper thin for games against the Lions, Ravens, Panthers, Seahawks, Cardinals, and Falcons. In the coming days, the Cardinals may look for a significant upgrade at cornerback or, at least, some additional depth.
For now, the Cardinals look to rely on Tramaine Brock and rookie Byron Murphy to start the season.
Former Chargers defensive tackle Corey Liuget will visit the Cardinals on Thursday, a source tells NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). At this stage of the offseason, Liuget is arguably one of the top free agents left on the board and is a name worth monitoring. 
Earlier this offseason, Liuget met with the Jaguars, Giants, and Seahawks. So far, he’s exercised patience in finding a landing spot, but the Cardinals could hold appeal for him. With $6MM in available cap space, Arizona could offer him more than the veteran’s minimum and give him an opportunity to shine. On the flipside, the Cardinals’ D is less than world-class, so there might not be a ton of openings for Liuget to exploit.
Earlier in his career, Liuget made noise as a defensive end and managed 18 sacks for the Chargers between 2011-2014. His sack totals, predictably, plummeted when he was moved to the interior on a full-time basis, and his 2018 suspension for PEDs further diminished his stock.
Still only 29, there’s reason to believe that Liuget can turn things around.