The Arizona Cardinals signed defensive tackle Coziah Izzard and placed rookie DT Kaleb Proctor on the season-ending IR.
There was an opening in the defensive tackle room when Proctor tore his meniscus in early June during OTAs.
Izzard has been inserted into Arizona’s depth chart, which currently has eight DTs on the training camp roster. Usually, the club will only keep four defensive tackles and five defensive ends. Izzard will be looking to secure one of the spots, and then become part of a rotational lineup.
Izzard (6’-3”, 305 pounds) went undrafted in last year’s NFL draft before signing with the Kansas City Chiefs after a stellar college campaign at Penn State. Despite having a decent camp, he was released on the final cutdown day, then signed to the practice squad, and then waived.
Four days later, the New Orleans Saints signed him to their practice squad, where he spent all of 2025. Although he inked a reserve/futures contract in January, the Saints released him on June 17. With Proctor’s loss, the Cardinals were seeking to fill that void and signed Izzard after a tryout with other players on Tuesday.
In high school, Izzard was named All-Conference for all four years. His school won the state championship in his senior year. He had 23 major-program college football offers.
Because of the pandemic, Izzard was a fifth-year senior. He played in 50 games with just seven starts, 78 total tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss, 9 sacks, 0 batted passes, and 2 forced fumbles.
Projected DT starters include Walter Nolen and Roy Lopez. Izzard will need to have a tremendous training camp with journeyman Andrew Billings, L.J. Collier and PJ Mustipher the favorites to capture the final two spots.