Birdseed: Cardinals’ moves at linebacker, travel miles adding up
Mike Jurecki takes a look at the major news and notes from the last week of Arizona Cardinals football.
Arizona Cardinals running back Kerwynn Williams (33) slips past defensive back Rudy Ford (30) as linebacker Alani Fua (59) arrives to make a tackle during an NFL football training camp Monday, July 24, 2017, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
The Arizona Cardinals have made seven transactions at linebacker position since the start of training camp. Deone Bucannon is on PUP list and Karlos Dansby had a few veteran days off. The team also waived the injured Alani Fua and Gabe Martin. Going into camp, the two were considered to have a role on special teams and provide depth.
MOVES AT LINEBACKER SINCE JULY 22
– Signed linebacker Tevin Floyd, waived injured linebacker Gabe Martin (Achilles)
– Signed linebacker Philip Wheeler, Floyd (hamstring) reached injury settlement
– Waived injured linebacker Fua (knee)
– Signed linebacker Josh Bynes and linebacker Terence Waugh
Scooby Wright trimmed down in the offseason to become an all-around player. He really excels on special teams, initiating contact with a lot drive and desire on the field. He’ll need to improve in coverage considering more teams are playing nickel and dime defenses over 60 percent of the time.
Keep an eye on recently signed Bynes. He totaled 209 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, a half sack, one interception, 14 passes defense, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery in 64 games (28 starts) with the Lions and Ravens since 2011. He will get a chance to compete for a backup spot.
TOTAL MILES TRAVELED & NOTES ON 2017 TRAVEL
The total distance traveled by all teams during the regular season will be 564,820 miles. The mileage used is based on the estimated round-trip distance for every regular-season road game.
The teams of the NFC West (110,848) have the highest combined mileage total of all divisions. The remaining division totals ranked from highest to lowest are the AFC West (90,546), NFC East (80,956), AFC East (75,105), AFC South (67,352), NFC South (56,146), AFC North (48,797) and NFC North (35,070).
The Rams (32,600), Raiders (30,899), Cardinals (30,035), Dolphins (27,520) and Chargers (26,134) will “travel around the world” at least once. A trip around the globe is 25,000 miles.
PRACTICE SQUAD NOTES
Each team is allowed up to ten practice players for the practice squad. The minimum salary in 2017 is $7,200 per week and there is no maximum salary for practice squad players.
The pay scale for rookies is $1,075 and veterans $1,900 per week during training camp including preseason games.
MILESTONE NOTES
Carson Palmer needs 15 touchdown passes to become the 11th player in NFL history to reach 300 career touchdown passes. In 13 seasons, Palmer has 285 touchdown passes.
With 75 receptions, Larry Fitzgerald will join Jerry Rice (1,549) and Tony Gonzalez (1,325) as the only players in NFL history to record 1,200 receptions. In 13 seasons, Fitzgerald has 1,125 catches. Fitzgerald needs eight touchdown catches to pass Gonzalez (111) and Antonio Gates (111) and move into sixth place all-time. In 13 seasons, Fitzgerald has 104 touchdown receptions.
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Comments
6 Comments
Not sure the Jarvis Jones signing will pan out. Guy was hurt the last couple of seasons with Pittsburgh, which injury streak has continued in Arizona.
Thanks for the information. I was a big fan of Jones when he was at Georgia. My brother is a huge Steelers fan, and when Jones signed, he immediately called me up and started warning me about Jones having health issues, that while he started those games, he missed a whole lot of reps. At this point, I can see Hassan Reddick taking more of his reps. Hope I'm wrong. It would be nice to have more depth.
He has had minor injuries in his career & soft tissue type strain/pull injuries, but overall in Pittsburgh he was pretty reliable, playing 14 games last season & 15 games the season before.
Here in ARI in the Cardinals scheme, I think Jarvis Jones will be a better OLB & more effective as well. The Steelers used Jarvis Jones a bit differently in their scheme, lining him up as both an OLB/DE as one of their two main pass rushers.
With the Cardinals Jarvis Jones will not be one of AZ's top pass rushers, he will be used in a rotational role and will also be used as an extra pass rusher in different pass-rush packages including their Nascar package, I actually think the 6"3/255pd pass rusher will be better than Okafor. Jarvis won't get a lot of sacks but as disruptive as he is he will cause a lot of sacks, and he will get home when brought in as an extra rusher rushing free. AZ also brings a lot more pressure far more often than the Steelers do. As a rotational pass rusher I think Jones stats will look much like Okafor's did come the end of the year with 25-30 tackles/4-5 sacks/1-2FF's. Jones also excels in coverage and is even better versus the run as an excellent run stopper, so he could play a role on run downs as well.