A compromised front seven for the Arizona Cardinals will have some more depth available for Monday night’s game against the L.A. Chargers after the elevation of defensive lineman Ben Stille and linebacker Markus Bailey from the practice squad.
Defensive lineman Bilal Nichols joined Justin Jones and Darius Robinson on injured reserve last week, so Stille will likely get snaps in the rotation along with the other five linemen: L.J. Collier, Naquan Jones, Roy Lopez, Dante Stills and Khyiris Tonga.
Stille was with the Cardinals in training camp and later spent 24 days on Tampa Bay’s active roster before being waived Sept. 30 and signed to the Cardinals practice squad four days later.
At inside linebacker, Owen Pappoe was declared out on Saturday because of a hip injury. Pappoe has consistently played a significant number of snaps on special teams, which has been Bailey’s specialty in four seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals before becoming an unrestricted free agent in March. The only other inside ‘backers on the 53-man roster are Kyzir White, Mack Wilson Sr. and Krys Barnes.
Those elevations are also an indication that running back Trey Benson, who was added to the injury report Saturday because of an illness, will be active as Michael Carter was not elevated.
Meanwhile, the Chargers signed cornerbacks Dicaprio Bootle and Shaun Wade from the practice squad to the active roster and placed defensive back Deane Leonard on injured reserve. They also elevated center Sam Mustipher and wide receiver Jalen Reagor from the practice squad.
Mustipher is the brother of Cardinals practice-squad defensive lineman P.J. Mustipher, who wore No. 40 in practice this past week as the winner of the Pat Tillman scout team player of the week.
Today’s inactive players would be announced at 4:30 pm Arizona time, 90 minutes prior to kickoff.
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