Cardinals’ risky 7-receiver move pays off with Simi Fehoko

Simi Fehoko didn’t know if his ping-pong matches with wide receiver Michael Wilson were about to come to an abrupt end.

Heading into roster cutdown weekend, the five-year veteran found himself doing the same math every player on the bubble does: counting heads in the meeting room, texting his agent and preparing for every scenario.

“I don’t know if this is the last week for ping pong or not, but if it is, it’s been a good run and hopefully we can jersey swap down the road,” Fehoko recalled telling Wilson. “You start counting heads and you realize, ‘Hey, am I the odd man out?’”

He wasn’t. When the Arizona Cardinals finalized their initial 53-man roster, they took an unconventional route by keeping seven wide receivers, a rare allocation of roster spots in today’s NFL.

For coach Mike LaFleur, keeping the 6-foot-4 target was a no-brainer despite the numerical squeeze elsewhere on the depth chart.

“He earned it,” LaFleur told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Monday. “If you’re going to keep the seventh receiver, you’re going to go lighter somewhere else. And he was just too valuable. He’s too valuable for our locker room because of the kind of guy he is. He’s too valuable at receiver because he can play all three different positions… And then obviously you guys saw what he did on special teams.”

That value exploded on the field Sunday in Arizona’s victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, Fehoko’s former team.

Fehoko blew through the line to block a Chargers punt, setting up a pivotal moment in the game and earning his first regular-season game ball in the process. While Fehoko credited teammates Eku Leota and Cody Simon for clearing the lanes, LaFleur noted the execution was evident the moment the ball left the turf.

SIMI FEHOKO THE MAN YOU ARE

📺:CBS pic.twitter.com/ysT2sORxwW

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 13, 2026

“Right when that ball was snapped, you could almost feel that it was going to get blocked just by the lanes that were created,” LaFleur said.

For Fehoko, the blocked punt provided a bit of sweet redemption against a team that let him walk, but it also validated Arizona’s belief in him.

“The Cardinals ended up valuing me a little more,” Fehoko said on Burns & Gambo. “There was an extra little chip on my shoulder and it was a little sweeter this time.”

That sense of belief extends beyond Fehoko’s personal journey to the entire locker room. Despite outside external skepticism surrounding the team’s outlook, Fehoko dismissed the notion that Arizona lacks the star power to compete.

“When you think people counting us out, it’s kind of funny when you hear it,” Fehoko said. “It’s like, dude, do you not see who we have on our team? … We hear it, but we don’t actually hear it.”

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