Cardinals Rumors: DJ Swearinger Released by ARI After 4 Games

The Arizona Cardinals have reportedly released starting safety D.J. Swearinger, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.

The 28-year-old had started all four games for the team this season after being claimed off waivers late in 2018, but the organization decided to make a change Monday. The Cardinals fell to 0-3-1 on the season with a 27-10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 4.

The Cardinals enter Monday ranked 29th in the NFL in points allowed and 30th in yards allowed.

Swearinger had played every snap for the team defensively in the first three games but allowed a 141.3 passer rating on 11 throws his way, according to Kyle Odegard of the team's official site. Despite his early struggles, he expected to turn things around Sunday.

"Now that we've got those first three kinks out of the way, Game 4 will be more vanilla and more smooth and I'll get back to the style of play of dominating and making plays on the ball like I once did," he said last week.

It's clear he wasn't able to turn things around to Arizona's liking, resulting in his second in-season release in two years.

Swearinger started 31 straight games for the Washington Redskins in 2017-18 but was waived prior to Week 17 last year.

Just like last season, the latest move was a relative surprise considering his role on the defense:

The 2013 second-round pick has appeared for four different organizations in his seven-year NFL career and will try to find another opening for the remainder of this season.

Arizona will likely turn to rookie fifth-round pick Deionte Thompson to slide into the starting strong safety role alongside Budda Baker.