Cardinals place tight end Geoff Swaim and linebacker Josh Woods on injured reserve
The Arizona Cardinals placed tight end Geoff Swaim and linebacker Josh Woods on injured reserve and signed two replacements in their stead on Wednesday.
Woods was one of four Cardinals players who tallied more than 60 tackles on the season while Swaim had 10 catches for 94 yards in his first season with the Cardinals.
Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon warned Swaim might not be able to play before Wednesday’s practice. Tight ends Trey McBride and Elijah Higgins will likely see an increased workload in Swaim’s absence.
Wood’s absence could open up playing time and evaluation for rookie Owen Pappoe with three games remaining on the season.
The Cardinals signed tight end Travis Vokolek from the Baltimore Ravens practice squad and activated linebacker Tyreek Maddox-Williams from their own practice squad to fill the roster spots.
Vokolek joined the Ravens as an undrafted free agent out of Nebraska. He had 20 catches for 240 yards and two touchdowns as a senior in 2022.
The Cardinals take on the Chicago Bears on Christmas Eve with kickoff scheduled for 2:25 p.m. Listen to the game on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
The season started out promising enough for the Arizona Cardinals defense under new HC Jonathan Gannon and new DC Nick Rallis. In Week 1, the feisty-looking unit held the Washington Commanders to just 248 yards of offense, forced three turnovers, and racked up six sacks. Early returns on the new-look defense staff were encouraging.
But, as we found out, the Commanders weren’t a very good football team… and the Cardinals defense was a pretty hapless unit. The defense has basically been a sieve except for a few games here and there: we somehow held Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens in check in a Week 8 loss, harassed Desmond Ridder and the Atlanta Falcons in Week 10, and shut down the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 13 (aided, of course, but weather, delays, and Mitch Trubisky).
Other than that, the defense has given up 400+ yards five times, and 380+ three more times. Sandwiched around that Steelers game were perhaps the two worst games of the season: 37 points and 457 yards to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 12 and 45 points and 406 yards to the San Francisco 49ers last week.
