{"id":681224,"date":"2026-01-16T07:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T07:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/681224\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T07:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T07:09:11","slug":"arizona-cardinals-sign-wr-ihmir-smith-marsette-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/681224\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Cardinals sign WR Ihmir Smith-Marsette for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 15, 2026, 10:30 p.m. MT<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/arizona-cardinals\/355\" data-autotag=\"c6331531-478d-4c7a-b93a-28f5b26af3f9\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a> announced a player addition on Wednesday. They signed wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette to a contract for the 2026 season. He spent the entire 2025 season on the practice squad of the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/new-york-giants\/351\" data-autotag=\"9402befb-12da-4b26-905a-81ab1fea0850\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">New York Giants<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">From the Cardinals&#8217; press release:<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Smith-Marsette\u00a0(6-1, 185) is a four-year NFL veteran who has played 48 games (one start) in his career with the Giants (2024), Panthers (2023), Chiefs (2022), <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/chicago-bears\/326\" data-autotag=\"69c69e75-f807-4542-90d2-619e6d4a23b1\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Bears<\/a> (2022) and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/minnesota-vikings\/347\" data-autotag=\"839728ed-97f0-4c7c-9ea6-299b7540514e\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Vikings<\/a> (2021) after entering the league with Minnesota as a fifth-round selection (157th\u00a0overall) in the 2021 NFL Draft from Iowa. He has 14 receptions for 182 yards and two touchdowns to go along with nine carries for 73 yards and a touchdown on offense. Smith-Marsette also has 66 punt returns for 550 yards and one touchdown and 16 kickoff returns for 481 yards and one touchdown on special teams. The 26-year old spent the entire 2025 season on the Giants practice squad after playing 15 games with New York in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">He averaged 34.6 yards per kick return and had a 100-yard kick return for a touchdown in 2024 for the Giants. He also averaged 7.9 yards oer punt return. In 2023 with the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/carolina-panthers\/364\" data-autotag=\"8afac4d1-41b4-4302-b154-b45f5b48a0d2\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Carolina Panthers<\/a>, he led the league with 37 punt returns, averaging 8.7 yards per return with one return for a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Cardinals now have five players signed to futures contracts for 2026. NFL teams can sign unsigned players for 2026 through the &#8220;futures&#8221; reserve. The new league year will not begin until March, so these contracts do to take effect until then.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Get more <a data-autotag=\"c6331531-478d-4c7a-b93a-28f5b26af3f9\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/arizona-cardinals\/355\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Cardinals<\/a> and NFL coverage from <a data-autotag=\"c6331531-478d-4c7a-b93a-28f5b26af3f9\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/arizona-cardinals\/355\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Cards<\/a> Wire&#8217;s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/27gxR7Oml5yVPywhOG8KHR?si=cGJ0FN6aRBquiLus5nj7rw&amp;nd=1&amp;dlsi=05e790ef05a641b8\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PL9sICHPD_aT9zxnG7dJj6izJWgMhLMh_U&amp;si=rpNldnLNN-_DdW8R\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com\/?id=83224X1595658&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fpodcast%2Fthe-rise-up-see-red-podcast%2Fid670822447%3Fmt%3D2&amp;xcust=SCAR&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fcardswire.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fnfl%2Fcardinals%2F2026%2F01%2F15%2Farizona-cardinals-sign-wr-ihmir-smith-marsette-for-2026%2F88192651007%2F\" data-v-afl=\"\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 15, 2026, 10:30 p.m. MT The Arizona Cardinals announced a player addition on Wednesday. They signed wide&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[95878,375,390,2604,1327,7,6,95973,95974,95882,95890,96059,96089,98724,95988,95896,95891,95888,95895,95906,96071,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-681224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-arizona-cardinals","11":"tag-arizonacardinals","12":"tag-cardinals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflcardinals","16":"tag-sstsncardinals","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagarizona-cardinals","19":"tag-tagcarolina-panthers","20":"tag-tagchicago-bears","21":"tag-tagihmir-smith-marsette","22":"tag-tagminnesota-vikings","23":"tag-tagnational-sports","24":"tag-tagnew-york-giants","25":"tag-tagnfl","26":"tag-tagnfl-hub","27":"tag-tagoverall-positive","28":"tag-tagsmg-timely","29":"tag-tagsports-news","30":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115903526605123756","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681224","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=681224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}