On Wednesday, the Arizona Cardinals made a couple of roster moves that may be seen as small surprised. Tackle D.J. Young was promoted from the practice squad to the active roster and receiver Jaymar Johnson was waived, but the re-signed to the practice. Johnson had spent most of the season on the practice squad before being promoted not long ago.
A recent FanPost gave a good synopsis as to who Young is.
Who is D.J. Young? - Revenge of the Birds
He's an undrafted player out of Michigan State University. He stand at 6'5 and weights 298. He is a DE converted to OT. He attended three colleges/ universities through out his collegiate career. He started out at Bowling Green University, where he started out as a left end. He played in six games, starting three, where he only racked up seven tackles.
There was some speculation about why he would be brought up. In the post on Wednesday that announced the move, it was speculated that the Cardinals were just giving themselves a little depth at tackle with Brandon Keith's injury. Darren Urban even thought it might have been a small thank you for his work during the season to get him one week's NFL pay.
There was more to it than that.
According to Kent Somers, the move was necessary. Apparently, the Philadelphia Eagles were going to sign him from the practice squad on to their 53-man roster. Arizona wanted to keep him around.
That would be a a good idea. Brandon Keith will be a free agent, along with backup D'Anthony Baptiste, and no one really expects Levi Brown to be back. They just don't have tackles around, and if there is one thing that offensive lines need is continuity. They just don't have any young tackle talent to develop.
So, regardless of whether or not he is a future starting tackle, the team needs to at least to hold on to the young guys to give them a shot to grow in their system, especially with Russ Grimm coaching him.
Will Young be the next Lyle Sendlein and go from undrafted status to multi-year starter? Who knows, but they need to at least keep him around in case he does.
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