Dolphins Sign Cardinals DL

The Miami Dolphins officially added former Arizona Cardinals DL Ben Stille this week, as announced by the team.

From Miami's official press release:

"Stille has appeared in 18 career games with one start in three seasons with Miami (2022), Cleveland (2022), Arizona (2023-24) and Tampa Bay (2024). He has totaled 17 tackles (seven solo), 2.0 sacks, one pass defensed and one fumble recovery in his career. Stille entered the NFL as an undrafted college free agent with Miami in 2022 and spent part of the season on the practice squad. He played collegiately at Nebraska (2017-21) where he was a five-year letterman and a three-year starter. Stille appeared in 53 career games with 34 starts and totaled 146 tackles (70 solo), 14.5 sacks, seven passes defensed and one forced fumble in five seasons with the Cornhuskers."

Ben Stille Leaves Cardinals

In two years, Stille featured in eight games for Arizona, totaling 11 tackles and two sacks for the Cardinals. He spent periods of time on the roster in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

Mostly a practice squad guy in Arizona, Stille did manage to make an impact in the few appearances he had for the Cardinals last season, earning some respect from head coach Jonathan Gannon when specifically asked about Stille after a win over Miami:

“I liked where the snap counts were for all six guys off the top of my head. I thought (DL coach) Derrick (LeBlanc) did a really good job of kind of putting those guys in certain spots, depending on the front structures and the personnel groups, to give them a chance to make some plays in there. That's what they did," said Gannon.

Despite signing a futures deal with Arizona this offseason, he was released last week around the time the Cardinals also placed veteran cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting on reserve/NFI.

Where Cardinals DL Room Stands

The Cardinals made massive upgrades to their defensive front, which only would have thinned Stille's chances of making the final 53 man roster in Arizona.

After signing big names such as Josh Sweat, Dalvin Tomlinson and Calais Campbell, the Cardinals left the 2025 NFL Draft with Walter Nolen III and Jordan Burch.

That's on top of returning faces such as Dante Stills, Darius Robinson, Baron Browning, BJ Ojulari, Zaven Collins, Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols.

Needless to say, Stille might have been better off elsewhere - perhaps that's with Miami this summer.