On Tuesday morning, the Arizona Cardinals decided to make some roster moves, cutting fullback Reagan Maui'a, promoting wide receiver Jaymar Johnson from the practice squad and adding tight end Stephen Skelton to fill his spot.
After the jump, let's take a look at why these moves were made and what implications they could have for the team.
Now that Anthony Sherman is back in the fold and healthy for the Cardinals, keeping Maui'a on the roster was simply unnecessary. Sherman is by far the superior blocker and special teams player, so this move came as no surprise. Maui'a was only brought on to fill in for Sherman while he was injured and he did his job well enough to remain on the roster for a few weeks.
Promoting Jaymar Johnson to the 53-man roster was something that was probably done due to the lack of production from some of the other receivers. Stephen Williams hasn't contributed much this year and has been inactive for most of the games. DeMarco Sampson has had his ups and downs as well, so promoting Johnson could be a way to light a fire under him. Johnson is a guy that can stretch the field with his amazing speed and hopefully, he can make some sort of contribution to the team. He may see some time on the field as a receiver, but we will likely see him play special teams quite a bit.
With the arrival of Johnson, I don't anticipate any of the other receivers getting cut. They are now carrying seven total receivers on the main squad, which is not excessive.
Bringing back Stephen Skelton, John Skelton's brother, came as no surprise either. Ken Whisenhunt indicated that as long as John continued to win games (he won this last weekend against the Rams), Stephen would have a spot on the practice squad. With Kevin Kolb scheduled to come back and retake the starting job soon, it will be interesting to see if Stephen Skelton can retain his current role on the practice squad.