{"id":320042,"date":"2025-08-26T22:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/320042\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T22:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:01:11","slug":"cardinals-keep-1st-round-pick-walter-nolen-on-pup-to-start-season-as-team-makes-moves-to-get-to-53-man-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/320042\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals keep 1st-round pick Walter Nolen on PUP to start season as team makes moves to get to 53-man roster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Walter Nolen III will remain on PUP, but Will Hernandez will be able to return to practice.<\/p>\n<p>That \u2013 and the decision to keep running back Bam Knight and release both Michael Carter and DeeJay Dallas \u2013 were the highlights of the Cardinals&#8217; moves on Tuesday to get to their initial 53-man roster.<\/p>\n<p>Nolen&#8217;s move from Active PUP to Reserve PUP means he cannot play or practice until after the Cardinals&#8217; Week 4 game against the Seahawks. Linebacker BJ Ojulari and defensive lineman Bilal Nichols are also now on Reserve PUP.<\/p>\n<p>Nolen won&#8217;t necessarily return in Week 5. He is just eligible to return to practice at that point; once he does return to practice the Cardinals will have a 21-day window in which to activate him to the roster. The same goes for any of the PUP players along with IR-to Return players.<\/p>\n<p>Another surprise release was wide receiver\/special teamer Simi Fehoko, who had a good preseason. Fehoko said on social media he will return to the Cardinals&#8217; practice squad if another team doesn&#8217;t offer him a roster spot. Xavier Weaver is the team&#8217;s fifth wide receiver.<\/p>\n<p>The Cardinals also cut long snapper Aaron Brewer, but that is likely roster juggling to allow another player to be put on IR-to-Return after the 53-man rosters are set. Already the Cardinals put offensive linemen Hayden Conner (knee) and Christian Jones (knee) on their two roster-cutdown IR-to-Return spots. (Teams can put up to eight players as IR to return during the season.)<\/p>\n<p>Linebacker J.J Russell, who suffered a concussion in training camp, was also placed on IR and his season is over.<\/p>\n<p>The idea this is only the first roster is crucial; changes for most teams are almost guaranteed before they play Week 1.<\/p>\n<p>Knight&#8217;s inclusion was a surprise, although he provides a speed element in the backfield. The fourth running back spot seemed to be between Carter and Dallas; one or both could return to the practice squad.<\/p>\n<p>A majority of the players cut are expected to make up the Cardinals&#8217; practice squad. Most players cut will go on waivers, with the claims awarded Wednesday afternoon. The practice squad will be put together Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walter Nolen III will remain on PUP, but Will Hernandez will be able to return to practice. That&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3922,58669,15424,1054,1051,7,2875,1053,1052,88,6,1731,3571,1485,8763],"class_list":{"0":"post-320042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-aaron-brewer","9":"tag-bam-knight","10":"tag-christian-jones","11":"tag-darren-urban","12":"tag-featured-articles","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-hayden-conner","15":"tag-home-page-news-headlines","16":"tag-mega-feed","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-simi-fehoko","20":"tag-transactions","21":"tag-walter-nolen","22":"tag-will-hernandez"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115097323717837376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}