“It was brutal. Yeah, it was brutal.”
Those were the words of Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort when he was asked recently how tough the decision was to terminate the contract of D.J. Humphries right after the start of the league year on March 13.
Humphries had been a stalwart at left tackle and a leader in the locker room, but then suffered a torn ACL in Week 17 at Philadelphia on Dec. 31.
A happy new year it was not for Humphries, who had celebrated his 31st birthday three days before that game.
The choice made sense from a business standpoint, but the human level is altogether different.
Ossenfort said, “We got to spend a year with D.J. and we’re both better for it; our team is better for it. It is really unfortunate with the timing of the injury, obviously for us as a football team and obviously for D.J. on a personal level. The salary cap and the way things are set up and the way contracts work; it put us in a very tough situation.
“I can’t say enough about how I feel about D.J. as a football player and even more so as a person. Just being around him. His energy, and the leadership that he brought to this team, we’re certainly going to miss him. I just hope nothing but the best for him in his recovery and his rehab.”
Humphries had signed a contract extension prior to the 2022 season, and while the salaries were high in the final two years of the deal, none of the combined $31.48 million was guaranteed.
He was released with a post-June 1 designation, allowing the remaining signing bonus proration of $13.8 million ($6.917 million each year) to be split on the cap between 2024 and 2025.
The full cap charge of $22.877 million, the second-highest on the team after quarterback Kyler Murray, is currently on the Cardinals’ cap through June 1. However, even with that, according to overthecap.com, the team has over $29 million of space with another $15.96 million becoming available on June 2.
Meanwhile, although the Cardinals are financially responsible for his rehab, it will be accomplished away from the team, while not knowing how much interest there will be from other teams whenever he is healthy.
Ossenfort said, “There will be plenty of resources available to D.J. that he’ll be able to do his rehab and he’ll have everything that he needs. But he’ll be on his own instead of with the team.”
Might there be a situation where Humphries could be with the Cardinals again, even though they moved quickly in free agency to add tackle Jonah Williams?
“Who knows what’s going to happen down the line?” Ossenfort said. “I would have zero hesitation to bring D.J. back. Unfortunately, the worst part about this league is injuries and it just struck a guy that meant a lot to this organization and to this team. It just hit him at the wrong time.”
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