Trey Benson is back with the Arizona Cardinals, but the move comes with a catch that shuts the door on his 2026 season in Arizona.
Benson was waived with an injury designation and then cleared waivers, according to the NFL transaction wire. All 31 other teams passed on him, which sent the third-year running back back to the Cardinals’ injured reserve list.
That sequence is often treated as a procedural step. A player waived with an injury designation can clear and return to IR, and that’s exactly what happened here.
Because Benson was placed on injured reserve before final roster cuts, he will be out for the full 2026 season in Arizona. If he gets back to full health, the Cardinals and Benson could still work out an injury settlement, which would free him to hit the open market and potentially play somewhere else in 2026.
Benson had not been seen at Cardinals practice in recent days, and his work during training camp had mostly been limited to individual drills. He also sat out all preseason games after a ramp-up to team work led to a “flare-up,” as head coach Mike LaFleur described it.
LaFleur addressed Benson’s status just minutes before the Cardinals made the waiver move official.
"We're just taking it one day at a time with Trey right now. Truly, that's all I got for you with that," said LaFleur, who was then asked if Benson would be an injured reserve candidate.
"We'll probably have a better understanding of that, I would say, after we get out of this game."
Less than an hour later, the Cardinals announced that Benson would be waived with an injury designation, a development that effectively ended his 2026 season in Arizona before it ever got going.
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