HEADLINE

Cardinals release WR White, reportedly will add Crabtree

Field Level Media

August 22, 2019 at 3:16 am.

The Arizona Cardinals released wide receiver Kevin White on Wednesday, ending his tenure with the team before he played in a game.

Later Wednesday, NFL Network reported the Cardinals are closing in on a deal with wide receiver Michael Crabtree, who visited the team earlier this month but couldn’t agree on a deal.

Crabtree, who turns 32 in September, had gone unsigned following his release from Baltimore in February. He had 54 catches for 607 yards and three scores in 16 games with the Ravens last season.

White, a first-round pick of the Chicago Bears in 2015, signed with Arizona in March on a one-year, $1.5 million contract with $400,000 guaranteed. He missed the first two games of the preseason while battling a hamstring injury sustained during training camp.

The 27-year-old played in just 14 games (five starts) across three seasons with the Bears, missing time due to a number of injuries. He has 25 catches for 285 yards and no touchdowns in his career.

White had been listed among three first-team wideouts on the Cardinals’ first depth chart, but Arizona also has three rookie receivers — Andy Isabella (second round), Hakeem Butler (fourth) and KeeSean Johnson (sixth) — in addition to expected starters Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk.

Butler has a broken hand and could miss a chunk of the regular season, but Johnson has impressed in camp. The Cardinals are expected to keep at least six receivers, and head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s Air Raid scheme is expected to feature four or five wideouts often, unlike most NFL offenses.

Kingsbury and Crabtree both played in college under coach Mike Leach at Texas Tech, though Kingsbury graduated four years before Crabtree arrived in Lubbock (2006).

Crabtree spent his first six NFL seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, who drafted him 10th overall in 2009, before joining the Oakland Raiders for three seasons. He was released by Oakland in March 2018.

In 141 career games (138 starts), he has 633 catches for 7,477 yards and 54 touchdowns.