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Arizona Cardinals News & Rumors

Dwight Freeney Retires From NFL

April 19th, 2018 at 3:56pm CST by Zachary Links

Dwight Freeney is calling it a career. After 16 seasons in the NFL, Freeney will sign a one-day contract with Indianapolis to retire as a member of the Colts. 

Freeney entered the league as the No. 11 pick in the 2002 NFL Draft. Since then, he has racked up seven Pro Bowl nods, three first-team All-Pro selections, and a Super Bowl ring.

Freeney, 38, will be best remembered for his time in blue and white, where he amassed 107. 5 sacks across eleven seasons. All in all, he has 125.5 career sacks to his credit, tying him for 17th all-time in NFL history.

The Colts averaged 11 wins per year during Freeney’s run with the Colts and had 11 sacks in his 22 playoff games with the team. Many thought the Colts were reaching when they selected Freeney in ’02, but he turned out to be the perfect fit for first-year head coach Tony Dungy.

“Bill [Polian] had seen Dwight and thought he was exactly the guy I had been talking about,” Dungy said of Freeney. “We’re sitting at No. 11 in the first round and people looked at his size and thought it was too high to draft him. Bill, to his credit, said, ‘If this is going to be the big piece of the puzzle, let’s not worry about where we take Dwight and what other people think. Let’s get the guy who is going to be the perfect piece.’ Dwight was the straw that stirred the drink.”

The Syracuse product played in three Super Bowls — two with the Colts, one with the Falcons — and started in 19 postseason games. All seven of Freeney’s double-digit sack seasons came with the Colts.

Following his Colts run, which ran through the 2012 season, Freeney played with five more teams. His most notable post-Indianapolis season came with the 2015 Cardinals, for whom he registered eight sacks and helped to the NFC title game despite being an off-the-bench edge rusher. He recorded three sacks in each of the past two seasons, playing in Atlanta, Seattle and Detroit. Prior to Arizona, Freeney spent two seasons in San Diego.

Cardinals To Sign CB Marcus Williams

April 19th, 2018 at 12:37pm CST by Zachary Links

The Cardinals have signed cornerback Marcus Williams, according to Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic (on Twitter). Williams finished the 2017 season with the Texans. 

Williams started 15 games in three seasons with the Jets, but did not start a contest in 2017. The Jets shopped him last summer and later waived him in October, leading him to Houston. With the Texans, he appeared in ten games as a reserve and totaled 12 tackles, four pass deflections, and came up with an interception against the Seahawks in a late October game. His most notable season came in 2015 when he tallied six interceptions in 13 games with Gang Green.

Williams will now fight for a reserve job on a cornerback depth chart that is presently headlined by Patrick Peterson and Brandon Williams. If the Cardinals can land an impact cornerback early in the draft, they’ll likely have a rookie starting opposite of P2. Other reserve corners in Arizona include C.J. Goodwin, Ronald Zamort, Jonathan Moxey, Jarell Carter, and free agent pickups Bene Benwikere and Louis Young.

Breer On NFL Draft, Dolphins, Moore

April 19th, 2018 at 11:21am CST by Zachary Links

Have pre-draft workouts gotten out of control? Many in the football world believe that is the case, Albert Breer of The MMQB writes.

“I worked out a guy who was dead because he got smoked by the team that worked him out two days before,” said one NFC assistant coach. “I had some questions about his toughness coming in, but I had to give him a pass on the whole thing. And it’s on the coaches for doing that.”

After a workout season that saw Wisconsin cornerback Nick Nelson tear his meniscus while working out for the Lions and N.C. State defensive tackle Kentavius Street tear his ACL while with the Giants, it may be time to bring some reform to the way teams conduct auditions with prospects.

Here’s more from Breer:

  • The Dolphins say they have the ammo to get into the Top 6 of the draft if there is a player they like, but Breer gets the sense that Miami probably won’t deal up for any of this year’s top quarterbacks. If they stand pat at No. 11, Breer believes that UCLA’s Josh Rosen is the most likely signal caller to fall to them. Of course, Miami has holes to fill elsewhere, so a Ryan Tannehill successor/alternative isn’t necessarily their top priority.
  • The Cardinals seem unlikely to make a big play to land one of the best four QBs. However, if a QB they like slips into the bottom part of the Top 10, Breer could see them making a move.
  • More than one team prefers Maryland’s D.J Moore to Alabama’s Calvin Ridley, Breer hears. This is consistent with recent buzz we’ve heard about the rise of Moore. Recently, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport categorized Moore as a firm first-round prospect, which is a change from what we were hearing just a couple of weeks ago. Still, Breer thinks Ridley will be the first WR off of the board and pegs the Cowboys as a likely destination since they have a clear need after cutting Dez Bryant.
  • Overall, this draft has depth that will lead to better-than-usual quality into the fourth round, Breer writes. However, the feeling is that this group isn’t stocked with blue-chippers, which means that teams in the 20s feel that they essentially have high second-round picks. “(Picks) 20 and 55 may wind up being the same,” one exec said. “The guy in the last third of the first round, you might be paying a first-round premium on him and he’s no different than the guy at 35 to 40. And those guys in the last third of first round, top half of the second, they’re the same not only in ability but value of their role in the game.” Breer wonders if this could hamper the Bills in their efforts to trade up using the No. 22 pick.

Cardinals Host Baker Mayfield

April 18th, 2018 at 8:32pm CST by Dallas Robinson
  • The Cardinals hosted Oklahoma quarterback prospect Baker Mayfield on Wednesday, per Robert Klemko of Sports Illustrated (Twitter link). Mayfield is widely expected to be a top-10 selection, and has been heavily linked to the Jets at No. 3, so Arizona — which currently holds the 15th overall pick — likely won’t have a shot at the ex-Sooner unless it trades up. But the Cardinals certainly need an infusion of talent under center, as neither Sam Bradford nor Mike Glennon are long-term options in the desert. Bradford inked a one-year, $20MM deal with Arizona earlier this year, while Glennon signed a two-year pact. Mayfield, if selected by the Cardinals, likely wouldn’t play immediately given the presence of Bradford, but he would set the club up for years to come.

Jets Meet With DL Frostee Rucker

April 17th, 2018 at 3:42pm CST by Zachary Links

The Jets recently hosted defensive lineman Frostee Rucker on a free agent visit, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. Rucker would be a logical fit for the Jets since he played under Todd Bowles in Arizona. 

Rucker, 35 in September, profiles as a potential low-cost addition for Gang Green. Last year, he re-upped with the Cardinals on a one-year deal worth less than $1.1MM.

Earlier this month, Bowles signed another former Cardinals pupil in linebacker Kevin Minter. Minter is one of several new linebackers in New York – along with Avery Williamson, Kevin Pierre-Louis, Brandon Copeland, Neville Hewitt, and Micah Awe – but the Jets have yet to do much along the defensive line. Rucker, who spent time on the interior and at defensive end last year, could serve as a versatile backup in the Jets’ 3-4 scheme.

In other Jets news, longtime center Nick Mangold announced his retirement on Tuesday.

Latest On Dez Bryant

April 14th, 2018 at 9:08am CST by Ben Levine

There are four teams that “some believe could show varying levels of interest” in wideout Dez Bryant, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter). This grouping includes the Cardinals, Ravens, Bills, and Packers.

The reporter notes that Arizona’s main issue is related to money, as the team is sitting with little cap room. Kent Somers of AZCentral Sports echoes that sentiment (via Twitter), saying the Cardinals won’t pursue Bryant unless he’s willing to take a lesser contract. On the flip side, Schefter observes that the Ravens still have plenty of space, even after having signed receiver Michael Crabtree. Meanwhile, the Packers could be looking for a big-play wideout to replace Jordy Nelson, while the Bills could be looking for a dynamic receiver to pair with Kelvin Benjamin.

The three-time Pro Bowler was released by Dallas yesterday. No teams have definitively been connected to the 29-year-old, although Bryant indicated that he’d like to play for one of the Cowboys’ NFC East foes.

Let’s take a look at some other notes pertaining to the NFL’s newest star free agent…

  • ESPN’s Mike Triplett believes the Saints could be a “dark horse contender” for Bryant. New Orleans has focused on improving their receiving core, but they missed out on offseason targets like Nelson and tight end Jimmy Graham. The Saints aren’t armed with a lot of salary cap space, so they’re presumably in a similar situation to the Cardinals. However, there’s no denying that Bryant would provide Drew Brees with another impressive target.
  • Bryant was under the impression that some of his teammates and coaches had it out for him, and he believes the lack of support ultimately played a role in his release. “I’m not here to bash anybody, but they know, man,” Bryant told Jane Slater of NFL Network (via Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com). “They know. They know. The way this whole situation got handled, I felt like I asked some of them to be a man about some of the situations a long time ago, and they couldn’t…I won’t put no names out, but they know, and I want them to know on this air I know. I’ll shoot them a text message and let them know. Little do they know is they can wear that ‘C’ [for captain] all they want to, but in that locker room, they know who they run and they talk to. They know who they communicate with. Everybody know where the real love is at, and I’m not throwing anybody under the bus, but that’s the difference between me and them.” Williams notes that last season’s captains were Jason Witten, Dak Prescott, Dan Bailey, Tyrone Crawford, Sean Lee and Orlando Scandrick.
  • Meanwhile, ESPN.com’s Todd Archer attributes Bryant’s release to “his falling production and “fiery” personality.” As the reporter notes, the “cracks in the relationship” started earlier this offseason, when Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones criticized the receiver’s sideline outbursts. When you couple the attitude with a drop in production, Archer says organizations will have “a difficult time looking the other way.”

Wilks: Josh Bynes Viable MLB Starter

April 12th, 2018 at 9:47pm CST by Sam Robinson
  • Cardinals linebacker Josh Bynes received $1.25MM in guaranteed money via his latest deal with the team, Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic notes. Despite a new coaching staff coming in and the Cards set to turn to a 4-3 setup, Bynes signed to stay in Arizona on a three-year deal. The base value of that contract is $5.575MM, per OverTheCap, but it could max out at close to $10MM. Bynes started 19 games for the Lions between the 2015 and ’16 seasons and was a Cardinals starter in just one 2017 contest. But Steve Wilks sees the 28-year-old former UDFA as a viable candidate to start at middle linebacker.

Benson Mayowa To Visit Cardinals

April 12th, 2018 at 7:06pm CST by Sam Robinson

A part-time starter for the Cowboys over the past two seasons, Benson Mayowa will make a trip to Arizona to meet with the Cardinals, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.

The Cardinals met with UFA Connor Barwin this week as well and will explore a Mayowa free agency add as well. Mayowa has been a much-studied defender on this year’s market, having met with the Redskins, Colts and Titans last month. Meetings with the Jets and Seahawks were also reported to have taken place during free agency’s initial days.

Mayowa has played five seasons — with the Seahawks, Raiders and Cowboys — but won’t turn 27 until August. While three of those five slates have included just one sack, he enjoyed a strong six-sack showing with the 2016 Cowboys.

The Cards are moving from a 3-4 look to a 4-3 under Steve Wilks and Al Holcomb, both of whom oversaw parts of the Panthers’ 4-3 look over the past several years. Mayowa has played as a 4-3 end throughout his NFL career.

Cardinals Cut Center Max Tuerk

April 12th, 2018 at 3:26pm CST by Zachary Links

Max Tuerk‘s time in Arizona has come to an end. On Thursday, the Cardinals announced that the offensive lineman has been released from his contract. 

Tuerk, a third round pick of the Chargers in 2016, signed with the Cardinals in November. He played in just one game, a 23-0 romp over the Giants in December.

In 2016, injuries kept Tuerk off of the field. Last season, he missed the first four games of the year after violating the league’s PED policy The Chargers waived him before he was eligible to return and later stashed him on the practice squad. Curious about his potential and in need of offensive line depth, the Cardinals swooped in.

Tuerk was a standout at USC where he played guard, tackle, and center. His versatility should allow him to find another opportunity, but his injury and suspension history may hurt his market.

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