Woods appeared in 46 games for the Cowboys and Colts between 2018 and 2021. He joined the Cardinals this offseason, and after being among the team’s final preseason cuts, he caught on with the organization’s practice squad. He only got into one game with the big-league club this season.
Bonnafon is taking the practice squad spot previously held by Jaret Patterson, who joined the active roster today. After getting into 16 games as a rookie in 2019, Bonnafon was limited to only six combined games in 2020 and 2021.
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 49ers, Cardinals, Rams and Seahawks moves are noted below.
Here are Wednesday’s NFC West transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day.
It sounded like Trace McSorley had an opportunity to stick on the roster as a third QB behind Kyler Murray and Colt McCoy, but the Cardinals decided to carry only a pair of quarterbacks through their first wave of cuts. There’s a chance that McSorley resurfaces on the practice squad. The former sixth-round pick has seen time in three career games, completing three of his 10 pass attempts for 90 yards and one touchdown.
Aaron Brewer is a bit of a surprise cut after serving as the Cardinals full-time long snapper for the past six years. However, there’s a good chance the 32-year-old lands back on the active roster once the Cardinals place players on their respective reserve lists. The same could also probably be said of tight end Stephen Anderson, who caught 24 passes across 33 games with the Chargers over the past two seasons.
Marquis Hayes was a seventh-round pick by the Cardinals in this year’s draft. The Oklahoma product will sit out his rookie campaign while sitting on injured reserve.
The Cardinals felt the need to bring in some experienced players at the position due to the high rotation-rate and youth at the position. With J.J. Watt likely to see little playing time in the preseason going into his 12th NFL season, Arizona’s defensive line is riddled with young players like Rashard Lawrence (23), Zach Allen (24), Cameron Thomas (22), Leki Fotu (23), Kingsley Keke (25), Michael Dogbe (26), and Jonathan Ledbetter (24). Woods (29) and Ringo (30) can add some of the experience and leadership that is missing with Watt (33) on the sideline.
Woods came into the league as an undrafted free agent with the Titans. After only making one appearance in two years in Tennessee, Woods was released with an injury settlement before signing a two-year contract with Dallas. Woods immediately became a starter in the Cowboys defense as a 1-technique defensive tackle. Woods would start 32 games for the Cowboys over the next three years, losing some playing time to injuries and some starts in the third year to free agent addition Dontari Poe. When the Cowboys drafted three defensive lineman in the 2021 NFL Draft, Woods was waived. Woods signed with the Colts for last year but spent most of the season on the practice squad or injured.
Ringo doesn’t nearly have the starting experience Woods does, but has lots of experience learning new systems. Since being drafted by the Packers in 2015, Ringo has spent time with the Bengals, Lions, Cowboys, and Saints, not to mention a short stint in the CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before the season was canceled due to COVID-19. This is technically a reunion, as Ringo’s month-and-a-half stint with the Cowboys overlapped with Woods’ tenure in Dallas. Up until last year, Ringo’s career had been that of a rotational reserve, but, after signing with the Saints for the 2021 season, Ringo earned his first four starts and appeared in a career-high 14 games.
Both players are 300+ lb. interior lineman who will take some preseason snaps off of the shoulders of players that Arizona would like to keep fresh going into the regular season. If they show flashes of their most productive NFL stretches, they could find their way onto the final 53-man roster and contribute to the Cardinals’ 2022 season.
In order to make room for Woods and Ringo on the roster, Arizona released tight end David Wells and defensive end Matt Dickerson. Wells had appeared in three games (one start) last year for the Cardinals and Dickerson hasn’t played since he was with the Titans in the 2020 season.
December 18th, 2021 at 7:37pm CST by Zachary Links
We are trying our best here at Pro Football Rumors to keep up with all of the updates throughout the league concerning players on the reserve/COVID-19 list. A lot of teams had high hopes during today’s testing as they were trying to get players activated in time for Sunday’s slate of games.
