Cardinals Clips
Offseason programs will start getting underway around the NFL next week.
The ten teams that hired new coaches this offseason will be eligible to start working with their players on Monday, April 6. The Ravens are the only team that has set that as their first day of work while the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers and Titans have set Tuesday as their opening day.
All of those teams will also be able to hold a voluntary minicamp later in the spring. Every team is also scheduled to hold a rookie minicamp and a mandatory minicamp over the course of the next few months.
The first two weeks of work for all teams is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only. The three-week second phase allows for on-field work, but no full-speed team drills while the third OTA phase allows for team drills, but there is no live contact allowed at any point in the offseason.
Most of the 22 teams with returning coaches will be opening their offseason programs on April 20 or 21. The Broncos have set May 4 as their first day.
The decision of quarterback Kirk Cousins to sign with the Raiders removes from the board a potential backup option for the Rams. And it potentially kicks the door a little wider for a return by Jimmy Garoppolo.
Via Nate Atkins of The Athletic, Garoppolo is currently “weighing a few options” as he plans his next move.
He doesn’t need to rush; since entering the league in 2014, Garoppolo has made $156 million. His days as a starter are likely over, but there’s still a need for him.
The Cardinals were interested. After talks hit a snag, Arizona pivoted to Gardner Minshew. It’s still possible, in theory, that Garoppolo could supplant Jacoby Brissett there.
The Packers also need a veteran backup. They were interested in Cousins. Perhaps they could also be interested in Garoppolo.
He also could wait. Injuries happen. Urgency could lead to better financial offers. Now 34, he doesn’t need to rush into the wrong spot. He can wait for the right one, whenever and wherever it may emerge.
Carson Beck and Ty Simpson are making some of the same stops as they make the pre-draft rounds of NFL teams.
NFL Media reports that Beck and Simpson are both slated for meetings with the Cardinals and Dolphins ahead of next month’s draft. Both quarterbacks have also spent time with the Jets already.
Simpson had a brief meeting with the Cardinals at the Combine as well and their head coach Mike LaFleur called him a “good dude and we’ll see where it goes.”
Beck has also met with the Steelers while Simpson has spent time with the Browns as he works to find a home in the NFL.
It became obvious late last season that Kyler Murray had played his final game for the Cardinals. The team kept him on injured reserve with a foot injury, with his last of five starts in 2025 coming on Oct. 5.
Mike LaFleur, though, wouldn’t discuss Murray’s future after his hiring as the team’s head coach.
Now that the Cardinals officially released Murray, who signed with the Vikings, LaFleur addressed Murray’s departure after seven seasons.
“Like I’ve said about Kyler, a lot of respect for him. Wish him the best,” LaFleur said Monday at the NFL owners meetings, via Donnie Druin of SI.com. “Did some good stuff here, but sometimes it’s time for change for both sides. Again, wish him the best. Will never wish ill will on anybody.”
Murray, the No. 1 overall pick in 2019, played under two head coaches in Arizona. He will not play for LaFleur.
He leaves after one playoff appearance, two Pro Bowls, 121 passing touchdowns, 60 interceptions and 32 rushing touchdowns.
“Like I just said, it’s one of those things where it’s good for both parties to part ways if you will,” LaFleur said. “Again, we wish him the best. He had a lot of success here. I know when I was on the other sideline, albeit [I’m not] Robert Saleh or one of the defensive coaches — he was a problem. Again, wish him all the success, but we felt like this was the best thing to move forward.”
The Cardinals signed Gardner Minshew to join Jacoby Brissett in the quarterbacks room, and the team could draft a quarterback to join them.
“Let’s call it what it is: The quarterback position is the most important position in all of sports. We know that,” LaFleur said. “So there were lengthy conversations in so many different aspects of [the position], and there will continue to be until we figure out how we have the most perfect room possible. I like where we’re at right now, but like we said, if there’s a guy to add, we’re going to add [him].”
The Bills made three additions to their 2026 roster on Thursday.
The team announced it signed center Lloyd Cushenberry III, wide receiver Trent Sherfield Sr. and center/guard Austin Corbett to one-year contracts.
Cushenberry’s last stop was a two-year stint with the Titans, where he started every game he appeared in (23) at center.
He began his career with the Broncos as a third-round draft pick in 2020, and he spent four seasons in Denver. He started 57 games for the Broncos.
Sherfield previously played for Buffalo in 2023.
In his first stint with the Bills, Sherfield made 11 catches for 86 yards and one touchdown.
Sherfield spent the 2025 season with the Broncos and on the practice squads of the Cardinals and Patriots. In 10 games and three starts with the Broncos, he caught three passes for 21 yards.
He started his career with the Cardinals in 2018, signing as an undrafted free agent.
Sherfield has also spent time with the 49ers, Dolphins and Vikings.
Corbett, who visited the Bills on Monday, spent the past four seasons with the Panthers.
He played all 17 games in 2022, his first season in Carolina, but missed 29 of a possible 51 games over the past three seasons.
The Browns made him a second-round pick in 2018, and he played 14 games before Cleveland traded him to the Rams during the 2019 season.
In his career, Corbett has appeared in 94 games with 78 starts.
Veteran receiver DeAndre Hopkins is looking for a new NFL team. He’s hoping to tap into an old connection.
Hopkins recently told TMZ that he’d like to reunite with quarterback Kyler Murray in Minnesota.
“Kyler . . . that’s my bro, man,” Hopkins said. “Kyler is like family. Whatever I can do for someone like that -- if Kyler needed me, if the Vikings need me, they know I’ll be there.”
The remark reconfirms the perception that Murray is the new starter in Minnesota (or, at a minimum, that it’s Murray’s job to lose).
The more pressing question for Hopkins is whether the Vikings envision a spot for him in the lineup. The depth chart is led by Justin Jefferson, obviously. Jordan Addison is the No. 2, as he approaches the last year of his first-round rookie deal. (The question of whether they’ll exercise his fifth-year option may not be the no-brainer it once seemed to be.) Jalen Nailor, mainly a slot receiver, left in free agency.
Hopkins has a specific and unique skill set. He displayed it during Saturday’s flag football event, boxing out an overmatched Team USA defender to make a one-handed catch of the undersized ball.
Hopkins turns 34 in June. He overlapped with Murray in Arizona from 2020 through 2022. He caught the Hail Murray touchdown pass amid a sea of Buffalo defenders, capping arguably the highlight of Murray’s career to date.
The challenge becomes setting aside Hopkins’s past achievements and assessing his expected contributions as of 2026. He had limited opportunities with the Ravens in 2025, catching 41 passes on 59 targets for 437 yards and four touchdowns.
Still, Hopkins could be a potent weapon in the red zone, giving Murray an option for jump balls in the back corner if/when the defense focuses on Jefferson.
The Cardinals have signed free agent offensive lineman Olisaemeka Udoh to a one-year deal, the team announced Friday.
Udoh, 29, spent last season with the Titans, playing all 17 games. He made two starts at right tackle and one at left tackle, while playing 341 offensive snaps and 65 on special teams.
The Vikings made Udoh a sixth-round pick in 2019.
He has appeared in 74 games with 22 starts.
Udoh has made 14 starts at right guard, four at left tackle, three at right tackle and one at left guard.
He is the fourth offensive lineman the Cardinals have added in free agency, joining Isaac Seumalo, who will start at left guard, Matt Pryor and Elijah Wilkinson. Still, the Cardinals are expected to select at least one offensive tackle during the three-day draft, and University of Miami’s Francis Mauigoa is a popular choice for them in mock drafts.
It’s been more than four years since Brian Flores filed his landmark race discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and various teams. The case remains stuck at square one.
The six teams that are the subject of claims made by Flores, Steve Wilks, and Ray Horton — the Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, Texans, Cardinals, and Titans — continue to seek a stay of the proceedings, pending multiple different appeals. This week, the presiding judge declined to stay the litigation.
Currently, the Giants, Broncos, and Texans have a petition for appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on the question of whether the claims made against them require mandatory arbitration. A ruling is expected within the next month or so. (The Supreme Court first has to accept the appeal before resolving the issue.)
The Dolphins, Cardinals, and Titans more recently had their efforts to force arbitration denied. That will inevitably be the subject of another petition for appeal to the Supreme Court, based on the broader conclusion that the NFL’s entire system of arbitration controlled by the NFL has been struck down.
Like most defendants to civil litigation, there’s value in slowing the process down as much as possible. Flores, Wilks, and Horton want to move the case along.
While, like all parties in civil cases, appeal rights can be exercised as to certain issues before the case has ended, there’s a point at which justice delayed becomes justice denied. It has been more than four years. At some point, it’s time to start addressing the merits of the case, and to stop spinning the wheels of the court system on the threshold question of where and how the case is going to be litigated.
As to the notion that the case would have moved faster if the plaintiffs had accepted the league’s arbitration procedures (even if the process is inherently rigged against them), consider this — the league’s designated arbitrator (according to the plaintiffs) did nothing with the claims for more than a year.
A defendant to a civil case can run, but it cannot hide. Unfortunately, the NFL and the six teams that have been sued have managed to run an ultramarathon in the effort to avoid having to answer the specific claims that Flores, Wilks, and Horton have made.
Common sense suggests that, if the NFL and the six teams had any real confidence in its arguments on the merits, they would eventually stand and fight instead.
Well, that didn’t take long.
Only eight days after the Cardinals released Kyler Murray, the team has a new No. 1 on their roster.
Linebacker Mack Wilson announced in a video on social media that he is taking over the jersey number previously worn by Murray.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft wore No. 1 during his seven seasons with the Cardinals.
It will be the fifth number worn by Wilson.
He wore No. 51 in three seasons with the Browns, No. 30 in his first season in New England and No. 3 in his second season there and No. 2 in the past two seasons with the Cardinals. The NFL relaxed its jersey number restrictions in 2023, which, among other things, allowed linebackers to wear single-digit numbers.
The Cardinals obviously had no problem giving away Murray’s number after he finished his time in Arizona ranked second in team history in completions (1,864), third in passing yards (19,498) and third in passing touchdowns (115). He did not win a playoff game, starting only one in his time with the team.
Murray is not currently listed with a jersey number on the Vikings’ roster.
Free agent wide receiver Greg Dortch is signing a one-year deal with the Lions, NFL Media reports.
Dortch reunites with new Lions offensive coordinator Drew Petzing, who coached Dortch the past three seasons in Arizona.
Dortch, 27, has spent the past five seasons with the Cardinals.
In 2025, he played 12 games with three starts, seeing action on 292 offensive snaps and 103 on special teams. Dortch averaged 11.6 yards on 16 punt returns and 26.2 yards on 31 kickoff returns, while catching 29 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns.
He began his NFL career with the Panthers in 2019.
In six seasons, Dortch has 145 receptions for 1,310 yards and 10 touchdowns, with an 8.9-yard per punt return average and a 23.6-yard per kickoff return average.
Dortch will replace Kalif Raymond, who is leaving Detroit for Chicago after five seasons.
