Arizona Cardinals Add Massive OL

"The Arizona Cardinals Football Club today announced that the team has been awarded its waiver claim on offensive lineman Roy Mbaeteka (mm-BEH-tick-uh) from the Cleveland Browns. He has been placed on the team’s exempt/international player list.

"Mbaeteka (6-8, 330) was originally signed by the New York Giants in 2022 as part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program and has spent time on the practice squads of the Chicago Bears (2023) and Cleveland Browns (2024). A native of Benin City, Nigeria, Mbaeteka never played organized football prior to participating at a camp in his home country in 2021.

"Mbaeteka will wear jersey #79."

The Cardinals lost their previous International Pathway Program player in Valentin Senn, who was placed on injured reserve. Senn was Austrian and was lost for the year with a neck injury suffered during training camp.

Prior to that, tight end Bernhard Seikovits occupied the Cardinals' IPP spot - which allows teams to roster a player from another country without it counting towards their final roster total. He was released after the 2025 NFL Draft. He spent four years in Arizona but never appeared in an NFL regular season game.

Mbaeteka arrives to a Cardinals OT room that is now set to lose offensive tackle Christian Jones for an unknown amount of time, as Jonathan Gannon told reporters today.

"He's gonna miss a little bit of time with a knee [injury]," said Gannon.

The Cardinals also placed a wide receiver on injured reserve today - you can read more about that here.