Cardinals Won’t Trade QB Mike Glennon
Cardinals are going with three quarterbacks to begin 2018, which means that Mike Glennon will stay with the team, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Glennon and rookie Josh Rosen will serve as the backups behind Week 1 starter Sam Bradford.
Glennon staying in Arizona means there’s one potential backup QB off of the trade market, which may raise the asking price for other quality understudies around the league. Between now and Saturday afternoon, teams will wrestle with the decision to keep two or three quarterbacks on the roster. Meanwhile, there are plenty of teams with doubts about their present No. 2 QB. Some of the players to keep an eye on include Tom Savage (Saints), Joshua Dobbs (Steelers), and maybe even A.J. McCarron (Bills).
The Bills inked McCarron to a two-year, $8.1MM deal this offseason, but rookie Josh Allen may be their Week 1 starter. McCarron’s only relevant NFL work came as a replacement to an injured Andy Dalton during the 2015 campaign, but he has long been regarded as one of the best backup types in the league. In eleven career games (three starts), the soon-to-be 28-year-old has completed 64.7% of his passes for 920 yards, six touchdowns, and two interceptions. He also started the Bengals’ 2015 playoff loss to the Steelers, throwing a touchdown and a pick.
Cardinals Release LB Scooby Wright
The Cardinals have released linebacker Scooby Wright, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Wright will be subject to waivers since he has less than four years of NFL experience and it’s possible that another club will pick him up before he hits the open market.
Wright, 23, missed the Cardinals’ final cut in September of last year but signed on with the practice squad the following day. In October, he earned a promotion to the 53-man roster. Wright was on the roster for ten games, but he logged just one tackle.
Wright has yet to make a major impact at the NFL level, but he is well known in the area for his work at the University of Arizona. In 2014, Wright tallied an eye-popping 163 tackles, 29 tackles for loss, 14 sacks, and six forced fumbles. Unfortunately, he was slowed by injuries in 2015 and his draft stock suffered as a result. The Browns took him with one of the final picks in the draft and he later found his way to the Cardinals in 2016.
Butler, Little Fighting For 1 Cards Job?
- Two notable names appear to be competing for the final Cardinals receiver spot. Former Cowboys rotational cog Brice Butler signed a two-year Cardinals deal but is not a lock to make the team. He and one-time Browns second-round pick Greg Little, who hasn’t played since 2014, may be vying for one job, with Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com writing he wouldn’t be surprised if Little beats out Butler. He has Butler making the team ahead of Little, however. A Butler cut would cost the Cards $500K in dead money.
Glennon, Other QBs Drawing Trade Interest
On Wednesday morning, the Packers traded Brett Hundley to the Seahawks. That deal is unlikely to be the last trade involving a backup quarterback, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Mike Glennon of the Cardinals, Tom Savage of the Saints, and Joshua Dobbs are the Steelers are among the QBs being discussed by teams of need, Rapoport hears.
The Cardinals signed both Sam Bradford and Glennon in March, but the QB room changed dramatically in April when they drafted UCLA star Josh Rosen. Rosen may not be ready for primetime, but the Cardinals may feel that he is ready to be a capable No. 2 QB. Glennon flamed out in his one month as the Bears’ starter last year, but he would represent a QB2 upgrade for many teams around the league.
Savage has been long rumored to be on the bubble, but he is now firmly on the trade block following the Saints’ acquisition of Teddy Bridgewater. The Saints project to move ahead with Bridgewater and Taysom Hill as the backups to Drew Brees, leaving Savage without a spot in New Orleans. Savage, a former fourth-round pick out of Pittsburgh, entered the 2017 season as Houston’s starter, but he lost the job to rookie Deshaun Watson rather quickly. He finished the year with 1,412 yards and five touchdowns against six interceptions.
The writing has been on the wall for Dobbs ever since the Steelers used a third-round pick on Mason Rudolph in this year’s draft. Landry Jones is locked in as the backup quarterback and Rudolph is locked in as the No. 3, so Dobbs is clearly on the block.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/28/18
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Arizona Cardinals
- Signed: RB Darius Victor
Buffalo Bills
- Released: S L.J. McCray
Cincinnati Bengals
- Signed: CB Darius Hillary
Dallas Cowboys
- Signed: OL Kyle Bosch, OL Matthew Diaz
- Waived: WR Ricky Jeune, OL Dustin Stanton
Houston Texans
- Released: WR Chris Thompson
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Released from IR: S Don Carey
Los Angeles Chargers
- Claimed off waivers (Texans): DT Marcus Hardison
- Waived/injured: OL Zachary Crabtree
Los Angeles Rams
- Signed: RB Larry Rose
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed: TE Anthony Denham
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: RB Ja’Quan Gardner
- Waived: S Chanceller James
Tennessee Titans
- Waived: LB Deontae Skinner
Jets’ $30MM-AAV Kirk Cousins Offer Raised Vikings’ Price
The best offer Kirk Cousins received this offseason indeed came from the Jets. Reports of a three-year, $90MM fully guaranteed Jets proposal turned out to be accurate. Cousins confirmed as much (video link via Vikings.com) in a multi-part series chronicling his unique free agency foray.
Cousins, however, hoped the Jets’ offer would convince the Vikings to raise their price to move closer to the ballpark New York established.
At free agency’s outset, the Vikings offered Cousins $25MM per year. Minnesota increasing its offer to $28MM AAV for three years cinched up the deal, although Cousins confirmed his two finalists were the Vikings and Jets. The Cardinals finished in third place.
Cousins said in January he was interested in signing with a team he could elevate to a Super Bowl. The Vikings are certainly closer to that realm than the Jets, who appear to have been Cousins’ contingency plan.
The twice-franchise-tagged quarterback said at that point during the process he wanted to sign a fully guaranteed, multiyear contract. But if that didn’t materialize, Cousins wanted to continue to play on one-year deals, as he had with Washington. Cousins collected more than $44MM in 2016-17 via the franchise tag.
During an expansive video, Cousins is seen Googling offensive coordinators — Jeremy Bates (Jets), Bill Musgrave (Broncos), Mike McCoy (Cardinals) and John DeFilippo (Vikings) are shown during this sequence — from his in-laws’ house. Cousins added that he was interested in returning to the Redskins, although this came after news of the Alex Smith trade emerged. Nothing to that point indicated the parties were interested in working together any longer, particularly after two failed July negotiations.
Unable to reach any family members by phone, Cousins broke the news of his intentions to sign with the Vikings, pre-Minneapolis visit, to a AAA employee who’d expressed interest in his financial pursuits.
Being the leverage team in the Cousins talks led to the Jets trading up to No. 3 and moving into a spot that turned out to be high enough to draft Sam Darnold, a possible Day 1 starter. Darnold’s at least in position to be Gang Green’s quarterback longer than the now-30-year-old Cousins probably would have.
Cardinals Notes: Keim, Moats
Cardinals GM Steve Keim has returned from his suspension. In a rare move, the front office executive was suspended due to an arrest for DUI. He missed a crucial part of the team’s offseason but has stepped back in seemingly seamlessly despite not being allowed to have contact with the team during his suspension.
- Cardinals coach Steve Wilks announced that defensive end Arthur Moats will miss 2-4 weeks with an MCL sprain, according to Mike Jurecki (Twitter link). The former Steeler signed a one-year deal with Arizona back in July.
Cardinals RB D.J. Foster Suffers Torn ACL
Cardinals running back D.J. Foster is done for the year. On Monday morning, doctors diagnosed Foster with a torn ACL, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). 
Foster came to the Cardinals last September after he was signed off of the Patriots’ practice squad. He didn’t play a whole lot in Arizona, but he was quietly impressing this offseason with his versatility.
The Cardinals were facing some tough choices at running back, but the injury clarifies their depth chart somewhat ahead of Saturday’s deadline. Fourth-round pick Chase Edmonds, T.J. Logan, and Elijhaa Penny are still fighting for jobs behind David Johnson, but it’s possible that the Cardinals will keep all three on the initial 53-man roster. Although the Cardinals have other running backs on hand, Foster’s special teams skills will be missed.
Foster had 59 receptions for 584 yards as a senior at ASU and the Cardinals were hoping to see some of that pass-catching acumen in 2018. Last year, Foster had 17 catches for 133 yards in seven games.
A.Q. Shipley's Deal Won't Bump Pay Much
- A.Q. Shipley‘s Cardinals extension won’t include much new money. The veteran center can make $2MM in 2019, including incentives, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Shipley’s making $1.5MM in base salary this season. These figures are fairly modest for a player who’s started all 32 Cards games since the beginning of the 2016 season, but Shipley will be 33 next year and just tore an ACL.
Cardinals Extend C A.Q. Shipley Through 2019
The Cardinals have signed center A.Q. Shipley to a one-year extension through the 2019 season, the club announced today. Shipley is currently on injured reserve and will miss the upcoming campaign after tearing his ACL earlier this month.
Arizona’s decision to extend Shipley while he’s injury may seem curious at first glance, but the deal likely doesn’t contain much — if any — guaranteed money, so there’s probably little risk for general manager Steve Keim & Co. Shipley originally re-signed with the Cardinals on a two-year pact in March 2017, and that contract will pay him a base salary of $1.5MM in 2018.
With Shipley sidelined, the Cardinals plan to use third-round rookie Mason Cole at center. If Cole establishes himself at the pivot in 2018, Shipley would likely return next season as a reserve at all three interior line spots. But if Cole doesn’t play well in his first NFL go-round, Shipley could conceivably compete to start again next year.
Shipley, 32, has been with Arizona since 2015 but didn’t become the team’s full-time starter until 2016. He started all 32 games over the past two season, and Pro Football Focus graded him as the league’s No. 14 center in 2017.