Category: Bye week

Cardinals bring in punters, long snappers for tryouts during bye week

They brought in five punters and long snappers for workouts on Wednesday.

The Arizona Cardinals players are off for the week but the organization is still doing some work. According to Wednesday’s NFL transaction report, they brought in eight players for tryouts.

You might find the list of players surprising because they were all punters and long snappers.

They had five punters and three long snappers in on Wednesday.

The punters were:

  • Britton Colquitt
  • Nolan Cooney
  • Sterling Hofrichter
  • Brett Kern
  • Seth Vernon

Cooney was with the Cardinals in the offseason and preseason. He recently signed with the practice squad and was elevated to potentially play when Andy Lee was hurt,

Colquitt punted 11 years for the Broncos, Browns and Vikings.

Hofrichter spent time in 2020-2021 with the Falcons and Buccaneers.

Kern has not played this year but has 14 years in the league, mostly with the Titans. He is nearly 37 years old.

Seth Vernon has never played in the league.

The three long snappers they brought in were:

  • Hunter Bradley
  • Thomas Fletcher
  • Steven Wirtel

Bradley was the long snapper for the Packers for four seasons.

Fletcher was drafted as a center by the Panthers in 2021 but has not played in the league yet.

Wirtel snapped nine games for the Packers last season.

The Cardinals have solid punters and long snappers already in Andy Lee and Aaron Brewer.

Are these tryouts because of injuries or illness? Is it for an emergency in the final games? Are the Cardinals looking to move on from Lee and Brewer?

Or is this a way to getting some advanced evaluations when both Lee and Brewer are older and entering free agency after this season?

It will be something to watch over the next few weeks and something to pay attention to as the Cardinals come back next week after the bye.

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WR Andre Baccellia back on practice squad, DT Andrew Brown signs with Bears

The Cardinals had a couple of practice squad moves on the bye week.

The Arizona Cardinals had a pair of practice squad transactions on Wednesday. Receiver Andre Baccellia is back on it and the team lost one player to another team.

After Baccellia was signed from the practice squad last week to the active roster, the team released him Monday. He cleared waivers Tuesday and, on Wednesday, the Cardinals announced he was re-signed to the practice squad.

There was an unannounced move.

Defensive lineman Andrew Brown, who had been on the practice squad since September, signed with the Chicago Bears on their active roster.

The Cardinals, who are on their bye week, have a vacancy on the practice squad. Someone will likely be signed by Monday to fill it.

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PODCAST: Sean Payton watch, good and bad from loss to Chargers. more

Listen to the latest edition of the podcast!

The latest edition of the podcast is live! Revenge of the Birds’ Seth Cox and I react to the Arizona Cardinals’ loss to the Los Angeles Chargers and give our top three good and bad things from the game.

We talk about Sean Payton and the rumors surrounding the Cardinals’ coaching situation.

We talk about the Cardinals’ bye week plans and then go over Kliff Kingsbury’s job security.

Enjoy the show!

Enjoy the show with the embedded player above or by subscribing to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform, so you never miss a show. Make sure as well to give it a five-star rating!

Below are the approximate timestamps of the topics we discussed.

(1:00) Reactions to the loss, 3 good things

(17:31) 3 bad things in the loss

(29:26) Sean Payton watch

(41:10) Plans for the bye week

(47:46) Kliff Kingsbury’s job security

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4 Cardinals who have exceeded expectations in 2022

In what has been a very disappointing season for the Cardinals, let’s take a look at some of the players that have exceeded expectations on the season.

The Arizona Cardinals are in the midst of a terrible season with a current record of 4-8. They aren’t going to make the playoffs and are possibly going to go through major organizational change in the front office.

With that in mind, there are still a number of players who have exceeded expectations in 2022 and have been bright spots on the team. They are going to be foundational pieces moving forward for the team to turn things around in the future.

Let’s take a look at some of the positives on this season.

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3 Cardinals who have disappointed in 2022

Which Cardinals have stood out as players that have disappointed for the team in 2022?

Sitting at 4-8, there are obviously a number of players on the Arizona Cardinals who have had disappointing seasons in 2022. Whether a display of bad coaching or roster deficiencies, the Cardinals have taken a nose dive from last season.

For various reasons, some players stand out more than others in their contributions to the teams’ struggles. Let’s take a look at who those players might be.

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Kyler Murray responds to Patrick Peterson’s accusations of selfishness

Murray took to social media to clap back at Peterson for saying Murray doesn’t care about anyone else but himself.

The Arizona Cardinals are off this week because it is their bye week, but they somehow found themselves in the news again. Former Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson, now with the Minnesota Vikings, had disparaging statements about general manager Steve Keim and quarterback Kyler Murray.

Peterson claimed Murray is a selfish player. “Kyler Murray don’t care about nobody but Kyler Murray,” he said in the latest edition of the “All Things Covered” podcast, which he cohosts.

Murray wasn’t having any of that and responded on Twitter.

“This isn’t true,” he wrote. “You (are) on some weird (expletive). You(‘ve) got my number, if  you really felt that like this as a “big bro” or “mentor” you (are) supposed to call me and tell me, not drag me so your podcast can grow.”

Peterson was teammates with Murray in 2019 and 2020 and Murray did look to Peterson as a mentor.

Peterson is still upset at the team — and especially GM Steve Keim — but his comments were in response to a quote that was taken completely out of context.

It’s not a good look for Peterson.

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Cardinals believe rookie TE Trey McBride’s flashes in practice will show up in games soon

Kliff Kingsbury says McBride shows some special things in practice. He believes they might start showing up in games as the season progresses.

Tight end Trey McBride, the Arizona Cardinals’ second-round draft pick this year, has not had a great rookie season. However, that doesn’t mean the Cardinals don’t see good things coming from him.

He was one of our duds in the Cardinals’ 25-24 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. He had a key drop and, over the course of the season, has missed passes, missed blocks and drawn penalties.

They are basic rookie mistakes for a kid that came from a relatively small football program in Colorado State.

“He’s just growing into it right now,” coach Kliff Kingsbury said Monday. “We see some real flashes at practice where you know he’s going to be a very good player in this league.”

As for the games, it is different.

“Sometimes in the games, it seems a little sped up for him, but that`s all rookies,” Kingsbury added. “The more reps he gets with Zach (Ertz) being out, I think it’s going to continue to help him, and you’ll start to see some of those flashes as the season winds down.”

So far this season, McBride has nine receptions for 46 yards.

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Cardinals players won’t practice during bye week

After a mandatory league meeting Tuesday, the Cardinals players are off until Monday.

The Arizona Cardinals finally have their bye week in Week 13. While teams do sometimes hold practices during the bye week, the Cardinals will not.

Following their loss on Sunday, they came in for film and corrections on Monday and they don’t have to come back to the facility until next Monday.

Coach Kliff Kingsbury gave some details of the plan for the bye week.

“We’ll have kind of a Zoom meeting (Tuesday) and then they’ll be off through the weekend,” he said.

The Zoom meeting is “just an NFL mandatory meeting.”

As for the rest of the time, the players will be expected to follow a program to stay in shape but Kingsbury said they will “just get away.”

Following Sunday’s game, safety Budda Baker said the goal and message for the players for the bye is “rest, recover, rejuvenate and get ready for these last five weeks.”

In years past, coaches have taken advantage of the bye to do more competitive drills and starters vs. starters. Not this year.

“Five, six or seven (days off) — we vary based upon when it happened in the season,” Kingsbury explained. “This (is) late in the season after Week 12. This is the first time we’ve had it this late, so we felt like that was the appropriate number.”

The next time they hit the practice field, it will be Monday and they will start to prepare for the New England Patriots.

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Cardinals hopeful for returning O-linemen after bye

While both must still miss at least one more game, the Cardinals hope they can get Rodney Hudson and Will Hernandez back before the season ends.

The Arizona Cardinals have four starting offensive linemen on injured reserve currently as they enter the bye week. Left tackle D.J. Humphries and left guard Justin Pugh will miss the rest of the season. Pugh tore his ACL and Humphries has a back injury that won’t allow him to come back before the end of the year.

However, two could be coming back soon after the bye.

The Cardinals are off this week but expect reinforcements moving forward.

Center Rodney Hudson and right guard Will Hernandez could be back in the lineup.

“We’re hopeful for Will or Rodney,” Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury said Monday. “I don’t know what that’s going to look like but hopefully one of the two at some point in the near future we can get back in there.”

Hudson has a knee injury and Hernandez has a pec injury. Both were placed on injured reserve before Week 10. After the bye, it will have been four weeks, but they each will not be eligible to be designated to return until after the Cardinals’ next game in Week 14. Players must miss a minimum of four games this season if they are on injured reserve.

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LT D.J. Humphries done for season with back injury

The Cardinals are hopeful he will not need surgery and that rest will be sufficient to get things right.

The Arizona Cardinals placed left tackle D.J. Humphries on injured reserve on Saturday, giving them four of their five starters on the offensive line on IR. He had missed three games already with the injury.

He will not return this season.

“It just wasn’t progressing like we thought,” Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury told reporters Monday. “We were hopeful for a while that maybe it was something he could come back the last few weeks and play but at this point that won’t be possible.”

Kingsbury is hopeful the injury will not require surgery.

“I think he’s still checking out the options on that but we’re hopeful he can just rest it and it’ll settle down,” he said.

Humphries signed a contract extension before the season through 2025.

Josh Jones will continue to start at left tackle in his place.

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