Arizona Cardinals sign veteran tight end Stephen Anderson

The Arizona Cardinals continue to add to their tight end room.

What was once a complete hole on the roster, is likely now one of the stronger positional groups on the roster as the team announced signing veteran free agent tight end Stephen Anderson.

From the team:

The Arizona Cardinals Football Club today announced that the team has signed tight end Stephen Anderson to a one-year contract. In accordance with club policy, terms were not disclosed.

Anderson (6-3, 230) comes to the Cardinals after playing in all 33 games the past two seasons with the Chargers where he made seven starts and had 24 receptions for 271 yards and one touchdown. He has played five seasons in the NFL with the Texans (2016-17) Chargers (2019-21) and has appeared in 62 games (12 starts), collecting 60 receptions for 706 yards and three touchdowns. The 29-year old Anderson originally entered the league with Houston as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2016 from California and played 28 games in his first two seasons in the league with the Texans prior to spending time with the Patriots and Chargers.

Anderson did not play a ton with the Chargers from a snaps standpoint, but when on the field, he was mostly used as a blocker first, as 195 of his snaps in 2021 were run blocks, while 25 were in pass protection. The other 126 snaps were routes run.

That was mostly his job in Los Angeles with a good Chargers offense, while in Houston is was the opposite, and most of his snaps were in routes being run.

We will see how the Cardinals deploy him as their third tight end, but nonetheless, welcome to the desert, Stephen.