Financials of the deal haven’t been released.

Arizona touts names such as Garrett Williams, Starling Thomas, Max Melton and Sean Murphy-Bunting in their secondary, so Jones simply is a depth signing.

Jones, who played in eight games last season for Chicago, played 66% of special teams snaps.

Arizona’s special teams unit has been one of the better squads in the league under coordinator Jeff Rodgers. Jones could potentially look to contribute in that fashion if he’ll make the roster.

Jones joins outside free agents in Akeem Davis-Gaither, Simi Fehoko, Mykal Walker, Dalvin Tomlinson, Josh Sweat, Jacoby Brissett, and Jake Curhan to sign with the Cardinals.

Arizona also re-signed Aaron Brewer, Joey Blount, Evan Brown, Kelvin Beachum, Baron Browning, Zay Jones and L.J. Collier.

After an eight-win season, the Cardinals approached free agency with over $70 million in salary cap space.

“You have to make the right decisions. If you historically look back and see teams that won the off-season or teams that won free agency… going back and looking at 2020, is that always the case, six, nine, or 12 months later? I don’t know,” GM Monti Ossenfort told reporters at the Combine.

“Free agency is a great roster-building tool. We’re right here on the cusp of the two biggest roster-building opportunities for us in free agency followed by the draft. We’re going to be active in both of them. We’re going to make smart decisions and things that we think are the right fit for our team, both the person, the makeup, and then also schematically, who can help us the most

We normally see defensive minded head coaches place a value on special teams, but so far it seems Chicago’s Ben Johnson understands the importance of the third phase.

If the last several weeks have taught us anything about the Chicago Bears, it’s that head coach Ben Johnson values the third phase. Not only did he retain special teams coordinator Richard Hightower, who had a top-ten unit a season ago, but he and general manager Ryan Poles have been signing and re-signing players who have excelled on special teams.

Their latest pickup, two-time Pro Bowl returner Devin Duvernay, will bring a speed element to the return units. He has two career kickoff return touchdowns and a 24.9 average, and his career 12.0 yards per punt return is the sixth-best mark in NFL history.

To aid Hightower’s special teams, the Bears have re-signed four of their top tacklers in the third phase, and the sixth is already under contract.

Here’s the list of the Bears leading special teams tacklers from 2024.

• Daniel Hardy: 11 total tackles, one forced fumble, one block (tendered an offer as an ERFA)
• Amen Ogbongbemiga: 11 total tackles (Re-signed to a 1-year deal)
• Tarvarius Moore: 7 total tackles (Re-signed to a 1-year deal)
• Josh Blackwell: 7 total tackles (Re-signed to a 2-year deal)
• Elijah Hicks: 7 total tackles (Signed through 2025)
• Travis Homer: 6 total tackles (Re-signed to a 1-year deal)

From a third-phase snap count standpoint, Hardy ranked first on the team with 370 (84.67%), Ogbongbemiga was third, Blackwell was fourth, and Moore, Hicks, and Homer were seventh, eighth, and ninth, respectively.

The Bears also brought long snapper Scott Daly (5 tackles) back with the returning specialists Tory Taylor and Cairo Santos.

The most significant contributor to the Bears’ special teams unit who has departed is 24-year-old reserve linebacker Jack Sanborn (4 tackles), who played the second-most snaps (369). Chicago declined to tender him an offer as a restricted free agent, which would have meant a $3.2 million deal. Instead, he signed with the Dallas Cowboys for $1.5 million.

Twenty-two-year-old linebacker Noah Sewell, who had four tackles and a forced fumble in 228 fewer third-phase snaps than Sanborn, may be ready to take on a bigger role if his health cooperates.

Hightower and the Bears will obviously need to reshuffle a few players, but having so many core members back will help the continuity of the unit.