{"id":817139,"date":"2026-03-17T13:49:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/817139\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T13:49:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:49:22","slug":"arizona-signs-ex-patriots-linebacker-to-2-year-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/817139\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona signs ex-Patriots linebacker to 2-year contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/arizona-cardinals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a> are making some foundational changes during the 2026 offseason. <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/arizona-cardinals\/cardinals-news-arizona-hiring-mike-lafleur-head-coach-after-whiffing-klint-kubiak\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona already hired Mike LaFleur at head coach<\/a> and made the difficult choice to <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/arizona-cardinals\/cardinals-news-inform-kyler-murray-pending-release\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">release QB Kyler Murray<\/a> after leading the team for seven seasons. The Cardinals made one sneaky free agency addition on Monday that should provide some stability on defense.<\/p>\n<p>The Cardinals signed former Patriots linebacker Jack Gibbens <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/2033683682326704327?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">to a two-year contract<\/a> on Monday, per ESPN&#8217;s Adam Schefter.<\/p>\n<p>Gibbens started his professional career as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota in 2022. He joined the Titans and immediately found a role during his rookie season, logging 28 total tackles and an interception in five games played.<\/p>\n<p>His role expanded over the next few seasons, but he didn&#8217;t become a full-time starter until joining the Patriots in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Gibbens played in all 17 regular season games for New England as well as during the playoffs, including Super Bowl 60 against Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>Now Gibbens joins a Cardinals defense that has already gotten a lot better during <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/nfl-free-agency\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL free agency<\/a>. Gibbens projects to provide depth at middle linebacker behind Mack Wilson Sr. in 2026. But if Gibbens&#8217; career is any indication, he&#8217;ll push as hard as he can to win a starting job during training camp.<\/p>\n<p>The Cardinals have also added a handful of other contributors on defense.<\/p>\n<p>Schefter noted that <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/arizona-cardinals\/cardinals-sign-supersized-ex-bears-dt\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona signed defensive tackle Andrew Billings<\/a> on a one-year deal. He joins former Lions defensive tackle Roy Lopez, who signed a two-year deal worth $11.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Arizona brought in free safety Andrew Wingard after he parted ways with Jacksonville earlier this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>It will be exciting to see which players the Cardinals add during the 2026 NFL Draft next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arizona Cardinals are making some foundational changes during the 2026 offseason. Arizona already hired Mike LaFleur at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,7,6,2592],"class_list":{"0":"post-817139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-free-agency"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817139","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=817139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}