The newly announced NFL preseason games will be here sooner than we realize, and the Arizona Cardinals are wasting no time. With minicamps, organized team activities (OTAs) and training camps filling out the summer, the Cardinals aim to fine-tune the moves they made during the first part of the offseason.
And if you haven’t heard, the word with the bird is “defense.” General Manager Monti Ossenfort and Head Coach Jonathan Gannon have upped the team’s Vitamin D intake. They spent most of their 2025 Draft picks and other offseason signings to fortify the defense, in hopes of creating a squad that terrifies quarterbacks (which I’ll still call the “Red Scare” ala the Pittsburgh Steelers' 1970s “Steel Curtain.”)
We might have to call it the “Red Tide” after the newest signing.
Arizona Cardinals Sign Linebacker J.J. Russell
One week before the team’s voluntary OTAs, the Cardinals announced on May 21 that they’d signed veteran linebacker J.J. Russell to a one-year contract. Russell spent his first three years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with the first two seasons mostly on the practice squad.
Russell came into the NFL as an undrafted player, and his rookie year was hamstrung—literally. He played just six games in 2022, exclusively on special teams, but suffered a hamstring injury in Week 9, according to ESPN.
Russell played eight games in 2023 and 16 last season, during which time he racked up 33 total tackles (20 solo), two pass breakups and one fumble recovery. The team’s announcement touted his “49 defensive snaps, not only his highest raw total, but the 24 percent of snaps played was by far the most of his career.”
The statement also boasted Russell’s consistency as a special teamer, playing 73% of Tampa’s special teams snaps in 2024.
Russell joins an insider linebacker room that includes veterans Owen Pappoe and Mack Wilson Sr, the newly re-signed Akeem Davis-Gathier, the newly acquired Mykal Walker and 2025 rookie Cody Simon. Kyzir White, who signed a two-year deal with Arizona in 2023, has not yet re-signed.
Cardinals Release Milo Eifler
In signing Russell, the Cardinals made the hard decision to release Camilo “Milo” Eifler.
The linebacker played at the University of Washington and Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before becoming an undrafted free agent with the New York Jets in 2021.
He stayed with the Jets for a New York minute before they waived him, where he joined the Miami Dolphins' practice squad. In December 2021, he signed with the Washington Commanders (where he played 10 games before being released at the start of the 2023 season).
Eifler signed with the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad but was waived at the start of the 2024 season, where he ended up in Arizona. He played two games and logged 23 special team snaps at the end of the season.