CB Antonio Hamilton out dealing with undisclosed issue

Hamilton missed practice Tuesday and Wednesday after having a doctor’s appointment. Kliff Kingsbury refused to elaborate.

The Arizona Cardinals are seemingly thin at cornerback and are a little thinner at the position. Cornerback Antonio Hamilton, recently revealed as being in the lead for the No. 2 cornerback job behind Byron Murphy, was not at practice Tuesday or Wednesday.

Head coach Kliff Kingsbury would not say exactly what the issue is.

On Tuesday, he told reporters Hamilton had a doctor’s appointment.

On Wednesday in Tennessee, Hamilton was also absent from practice. When asked about his absence, Kingsbury again would not elaborate.

“He’s still being evaluated,” he said, according to AZCardinals.com’s Darren Urban. “We’ll let you know Week 1 when we have to (on the injury report).”

Kingsbury was not concerned about the absence.

The Cardinals have two more full weeks after this week before their season opener.

It is concerning to have another cornerback unavailable, but if he doesn’t end up missing practice time in Week 1, it won’t matter much.

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Cardinals, Titans to hold only one joint practice this week

Both teams are concerned about their health heading into the preseason finale.

The Arizona Cardinals will face the Tennessee Titans in their final preseason game this Saturday. They were set to hold two joint practices Wednesday and Thursday leading up to that matchup.

For the Cardinals, it was going to be the only competitive football work the regular starters were going to get against another team.

Plans have changed.

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel told reporters in Tennessee that the two teams will still hold a joint practice but it will only be one day. Instead of Wednesday and Thursday, it will only be Wednesday.

Vrabel said, “just from a health standpoint, Kliff and I decided that was best for our football teams.”

Both team want to make sure they don’t get any key players hurt in a competitive practice less than three weeks from the start of the season.

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Possible cuts for Cardinals after 2 preseason games

The Cardinals must trim five players from their roster by Tuesday afternoon. These are several of the potential candidates.

The Arizona Cardinals have played two preseason games and now have a few decisions to make with their roster. They must trim their roster down by five players to get down to 80 players.

They technically only have to get their roster down to 81 players because of their roster exemption for tight end Bernhard Seikovits, who joined the team last year through the NFL’s International Pathways Program.

But they still must cut five players by Tuesday afternoon.

For these coming roster moves, health at different positions matters. They still must field a team this weekend for their preseason finale and will not play their starters. Which players are potential cuts?

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Cardinals announce dates, times of 3 preseason games

The Cardinals play the Bengals, Ravens and Titans in the preseason and their home game against the Ravens will be nationally televised.

The Arizona Cardinals released an incomplete preseason schedule with the release of their regular-season 2022 schedule. We know they face the Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans in their three preseason contests.

Their one home preseason game is against the Ravens. It will be nationally televised on FOX.

The details of the games were not set, but the team announced dates and times for the three games. You can now make plans and arrangements if you are going to travel to those games.

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Cardinals’ preseason schedule features Sunday night home game

The Cardinals’ preseason opponents and one of the dates and times were announced Thursday along with their regular-season schedule.

The big deal of Thursday night was the release of the Arizona Cardinals’ full 2022 regular-season schedule. Among all that was a smaller announcement, which was their preseason schedule.

Because they have nine home games in 2022 (one will be played in Mexico City), their three-game preseason slate includes only one home game.

That home game will be played on a Sunday night in prime time. Their two road games have not been set in terms of day and time. They will face the Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans.

They will hold join training camp practices with the Titans.

The Cardinals’ preseason schedule looks like this:

Cardinals 2022 preseason schedule

Preseason game 1: Arizona Cardinals at Cincinnati Bengals (Aug. 11-14)

Preseason game 2: Baltimore Ravens at Arizona Cardinals, Sun. Aug. 21, 5 p.m. Arizona time

Preseason game 3: Arizona Cardinals at Tennessee Titans (Aug. 25-28)

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QB Kyler Murray wins first weekly award on Nickelodeon

NFL Slimetime recognizes Murray for his five-touchdown performance in Week 1 for the Cardinals.

The NFL has branched out to try and grab a new generation of fans and one of its latest endeavors is including kids network Nickelodeon. Part of that is a new weekly show on the network called NFL Slimetime, which airs Wednesday evenings, covering highlights from the previous weekend of games.

As part of the show, a weekly NVP (Nickelodeon Valuable Player) is named.

The first such award goes to Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray.

His performance in the Cardinals’ 38-13 win over the Tennessee Titans was worthy of player of the week honors in the NFC but he was snubbed in favor of Los Angeles Rams QB Matthew Stafford.

Murray is named NVP after throwing four touchdown passes and 289 passing yards in the Cardinals’ win. He added a fifth score with a touchdown run as well. Only New Orleans Saints quarterback Jameis Winston matched Murray’s five total touchdowns in Week 1.

It isn’t the conference player of the week award, but it is recognition from the coming generation of fans who will watch him play for years to come.

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PODCAST: Week 1 Cardinals-Titans takeaways, Week 2 Cardinals-Vikings preview

Listen to the latest edition of the podcast to break down and react to the Cardinals’ Week 1 win and Week 2 preview.

The latest episode of the podcast has gone live. Revenge of the Birds’ Seth Cox and I got together to talk about the Arizona Cardinals’ big win in Week 1 over the Tennessee Titans.

We talk about the many positives from the game and do some minor nitpicking, pointing out a few negatives. We discuss the playing time for a few players and them give our preview for their Week 2 home opener against the Minnesota Vikings.

Enjoy the show!


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


Approximate time stamps for each part of the show:

(1:00) Initial reactions to the game and the positives in the win

(32:40) Some of the negatives from the game

(43:05) Discussion of the snaps counts

(1:00:50) Cardinals-Vikings preview

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Chandler Jones rightly named NFC Defensive Player of the Week

In what might be the most expected announcement of the year, Jones’ five sacks gets recognized as the best defensive performance of the week.

It is no surprise. After his five-sacks, two-forced fumble performance in Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals outside linebacker Chandler Jones was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week.

There was no way this was not going to happen.

He had six tackles, four tackles for loss, five sacks and two forced fumbles. No one else in the league had more than two sacks in Week 1.

It is the fifth time he has earn player of the week honors and it is the fourth time he has won it as a member of the Cardinals. He is now tied with Adrian Wilson for the most player of the week honors in team history.

His five sacks tied a franchise record for the most in a game. He became only the third player ever to have at least five sacks in a season opener. He is only the second player in the last 16 years to log at least six tackles, five sacks, six quarterback hits and two forced fumbles in a single game.

With five sacks in only one game, he is an early favorite to be the Defensive Player of the Year. With 17 games this season, if he doesn’t set a career high — his previous best was 19 sacks in 2019 — it would almost be a disappointment.

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LT D.J. Humphries was a secret super start of Week 1

Humphries did not allow a single pressure in pass blocking and was solid in the running game as well.

In the Arizona Cardinals’ 38-13 Week 1 over the Tennessee Titans, the biggest performances were from quarterback Kyler Murray and linebacker Chandler Jones. Murray threw four touchdown passes and rushed for another in the win, while Jones had five sacks and two forced fumbles.

They got the most attention, but others had fine games as well.

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar found some of the more underrated performances of the week and wrote about the “secret superstars” for Week 1.

Cardinals left tackle D.J. Humphries was one of them.

Farrar goes through his early career and struggles and cites his fantastic play last season. He gave up just two sacks and 23 total pressures on 695 pass-blocking snaps.

That level of play showed up again in Arizona’s 38-13 opening win against the Titans. Humphries allowed no pressures of any kind on 37 pass-blocking snaps. and was strong in run-blocking on 32 more snaps. Kyler Murray completed four of six passes of 20 or more air yards for 107 yards and a touchdown, and a big part of that big-play success was Humphries’ ability to keep Tennessee’s pass-rushers (especially Bud Dupree) at bay.

Humphries has become one of the league’s best tackles. He has not gotten recognition for it, but if he keeps it up, a Pro Bowl is in his future.

His play will help determine how good the Arizona offense is in 2021. If Week 1 was a preview for what it could be, the league better watch out.

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3 playing time surprises for the Cardinals in Week 1

After looking at the snap counts for the Cardinals, there a few things that surprised us. Check out what it was.

We took a look at the offensive and defensive snap counts for the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1. Among the 69 offensive snaps and 64 defensive snaps against the Tennessee Titans, there were some surprises.

We go over them below.

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