Cardinals elevate undrafted rookie RB Jonathan Ward from practice squad

The Arizona Cardinals announced a Saturday roster move to elevate a practice squad player to the active roster. While, based on the final injury report having cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick and defensive lineman Jordan Phillips both questionable for the game, they could have promoted a cornerback or defensive lineman, they instead elevated a running back.

The team announced undrafted rookie running back Jonathan Ward was elevated to the active roster.

Teams can elevate up to two practice squad players to the active roster for game days, giving them up to 55 players to select their 48 active players for the game.

Ward was one of the four players on the practice squad the Cardinals protected this week.

This suggests that the team doesn’t feel like the ankle injury to Phillips or the neck injury to Kirkpatrick will be a problem. The Cardinals only have four cornerbacks on the roster, so if there were any doubt about Kirkpatrick’s ability to play, they would have promoted Jace Whittaker from the practice squad.

The Cardinals also protected defensive linemen Jonathan Bullard and Michael Dogbe this week.

It will be interesting to see if the Cardinals make Ward active on Sunday. They have had three running backs active each Sunday but it has been Kenyan Drake, Chase Edmonds and D.J. Foster. Seventh-round rookie Eno Benjamin has been inactive both games so far this season.

Foster only played on special teams. Will Ward be active to play special teams or will Benjamin get his NFL debut?

The Cardinals will announced their inactive list about 90 minutes before kickoff on Sunday.

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