Safety Shawn Williams Ready to Practice After Passing Physical

The Cardinals added a free-agent wide receiver to the roster Tuesday and also removed safety Shawn Williams from the active/non-football injury list after he passed his physical.

It is expected that Williams will be on the practice field Wednesday. After he was placed on active/NFI July 27, head coach Kliff Kingsbury did not reveal the injury but said he would likely be out “a couple weeks.” However, he was on the list for only eight days.

The receiver signed was Greg Dortch, who had a tryout along with two other wide receivers: Aleva Hifo and Marlon Williams. With Christian Kirk, Antoine Wesley and A.J. Richardson not practicing in recent days and Rico Gafford still on reserve/COVID-19, more numbers were needed for practice where the Cardinals had only eight available wideouts.

Dortch (5-7, 175 from Wake Forest) entered the NFL with the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2019. He was waived on Sept. 1 and signed to the Jets practice squad two days later. The Carolina Panthers signed him to their active roster Oct. 16, was waived Nov. 11, added to the practice squad two days later, signed to the roster again on Dec. 6 and was waived Dec. 10. He was later signed to the Los Angeles Rams practice squad on Dec. 12.

Dortch signed a futures contract with the Rams after the 2019 season, but was waived prior to the start of training camp on July 26. He ended the season on the Atlanta Falcons practice squad after being signed Dec. 28 and signed a futures contract with the Falcons on Jan. 4 of this year. However, he was waived on June 17.

Dortch played two games for the Panthers in 2019 and played 17 snaps on special teams. Nine of those snaps were as a kick returner as he returned four punts for 28 yards and five kickoffs for 119 yards.

Hifo (5-10, 187 from Brigham Young) signed as an undrafted free agent with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020. He spent six days on the reserve/COVID list at the start of training camp and was eventually waived on Aug. 19.

Williams (6-0, 216 from Central Florida) went undrafted this year and had a minicamp tryout with the Houston Texans after the draft, but wasn’t signed.