Arizona Cardinals place Phil Dawson, Josh Bynes on injured reserve, promote Zane Gonzalez to active roster

The Arizona Cardinals have had enough.

Gone from the team are veterans Andre Smith and Bene Benwikere, both who were released as announced by the team today.

Also, the Cardinals have placed their only good linebacker, Josh Bynes on injured reserve while also placing veteran kicker Phil Dawson on IR.

The move paves the way for the Cardinals to promote 23 year old Arizona State alum Zane Gonzalez.

It is the youth movement we have been waiting for.

The loss of Bynes is a big one though.

The Cardinals defense has struggled mightily at the linebacker position, going through a number of players this season to try and find the right combination to work with. Always present and consistent though was Bynes.

Now, the team will have to rely on Haason Reddick and potentially Deone Bucannon if he can stay healthy. Or they’ll be able to start evaluation others on the roster like Dennis Gardeck and Ezekiel Turner at linebacker and to see if the team will need to invest another high pick in a linebacker.

It is a youth movement, something that makes sense, why have known commodities taking up reps for unknowns at this point when the outcome ends up being things like what happened on Sunday.

If you’re going to lose, may as well learn what you have.