Tyrann Mathieu placed on injured reserve, Arizona Cardinals replace him with Chris Clemons

The Arizona Cardinals made things official on Tuesday with safety Tyrann Mathieu. The team announced he was placed on injured reserve, which officially ends his season. After suffering a torn ACL, he wasn't going to play again this season.

To replace him on the roster, the team brings back a player who knows the defense -- they re-sign safety Chris Clemons. whom the team signed last season and who made the roster coming out of the preseason.

Clemons (6-1, 215) played the first five games of the season with the Cardinals and had two special teams tackles and one tackle on defense. He was placed on injured reserve (ankle) on October 14 and then reached an injury settlement with the Cardinals on October 19.

In his career, Clemons has played in 78 games (48 starts) and has 257 tackles (188 solo), 1.5 sacks, four interceptions, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. Clemons originally joined the Cardinals in December of 2014 as a free agent and played in one game last year.

How is it that Clemons could come back to the team after having been placed on injured reserve? Darren Urban explains here. Essentially, a player can only re-sign with the team that placed him on IR if it has been at least six weeks past the injury settlement length.

When Clemons was with the Cardinals, he was solid on special teams and was also used as  the team's seventh defensive back when they went with their dime sets. Justiin Bethel took over that role when Clemons went to IR.