ARIZONA - The Arizona Cardinals are set to establish their initial 53-man roster later today, and after making a few surprise moves via trade, they've released two veteran cornerbacks.
According to CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz, the Cardinals are releasing Sean Murphy-Bunting and Starling Thomas.
According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, Murphy-Bunting was a trade candidate in recent days. That checks out, as we listed him in our own list of Cardinals to watch when it came to trades:
"Murphy-Bunting finds himself in a precarious spot. After widely being viewed as a cut candidate, he restructured his deal to stay in Arizona before making the move to slot duties while Williams wasn't healthy," we wrote.
"Now, with Williams healthy, Murphy-Bunting is relegated to a backup role. He, along with the bottom of Arizona's depth chart, does feel expendable if the phone rings."
You can read more on trade candidates here .
Murphy-Bunting restructured his contract to be with the Cardinals this offseason after heavily being rumored to be a cut candidate. Arizona then switched his position from an exclusive boundary cornerback to slot duties while Garrett Williams was on the PUP list.
Williams made a strong recovery, however, which demoted Murphy-Bunting to backup duties. The veteran experience and versatility wasn't enough to keep him around.
The Cardinals' release of Thomas also isn't surprising, as Thomas tore his ACL ahead of last season and was just getting back up to speed. In a deep room that features Williams, Will Johnson and Denzel Burke at the top, Thomas needed to show out.
He didn't quite do that, and it became apparent he was a legitimate cut candidate when he (alongside Kei'Trel Clark and Elijah Jones) played deep into Arizona's preseason finale in Green Bay. Clark likely has the edge to make the roster, assuming the Cardinals roll with five cornerbacks with Max Melton also in place.
Arizona shed nearly $2 million as a result of releasing Thomas/Murphy-Bunting.
The Cardinals have until 3:00 PM to trim their roster down to 53 players.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/cardinals/onsi as Cardinals Surprisingly Release 2 Veteran CBs Ahead of 53-Man Roster Cuts .
