The Arizona Cardinals must have liked what they saw in San Francisco over the years
The Arizona Cardinals grabbed guard Mike Iupati a few years ago in free agency. At the time it was considered one of the best free agent pickups.
Iupati immediately brought legitimacy to the Cardinals run game as one of the league’s best run blockers. They were willing to take what they could get with his pass protection.
Then in this off season the Cardinals knew they had to upgrade their special teams. They started with 42-year-old Phil Dawson. He still has one of the more accurate legs in the league.
This past weekend there was a lot of buzz with the Cardinals looking to upgrade their punter. They weren’t sold on either Matt Wile or Richie Leone. Neither were spectacular in the preseason.
Wile initially made the team but most knew it was going to be short lived. After former San Francisco 49ers punter Andy Lee was released by the Carolina Panthers on Saturday, immediately it was known the Cardinals were interested.
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Lee signed on Monday after about 48 hours of waiting to see what would happen there. Now, another former 49ers player has signed with the Cardinals.
The Cardinals only had 52 players on the 53-man roster, so we knew they would be adding someone soon. That came on Tuesday when the Cardinals signed former 49ers guard Alex Boone, recently with the Minnesota Vikings.
The Cardinals used to be teased about signing former Pittsburgh Steelers players. Now the trend has bucked west to the 49ers.
While likely unintentional, it is interesting how the Cardinals gravitate to former players of another team. At one point, they were loading up on Clemson players on the roster. They are down to just two of them.
The addition of Boone is a little surprising but not the fact that it was an offensive lineman. There was thought that was the position the Cardinals were looking to make additions at. We’ll see if this one pans out.