TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona Cardinals cornerback Garrett Williams was activated from the physically unable to perform list on Thursday, and it's possible that the fourth-year player will be ready for Week 1.
Williams started 10 games last season before suffering a torn Achilles tendon on Dec. 21 — roughly eight months ago.
“A lot of work was put in, first and foremost by him, and then a lot of people behind the scenes to get to this point,” coach Mike LaFleur said. “Happy for him. He's had a smile on his face because we've known this day was coming for some time. Now it's time for the next step.”
He's expected to be in the mix for playing time among a deep position group that includes Sean Murphy-Bunting, Will Johnson, Denzel Burke, Starling Thomas and Max Melton.
A third-round pick out of Stanford in 2023, Williams has played in 35 games with 27 starts. He has four interceptions and two forced fumbles.
“Definitely excited to get Garrett back,” safety Budda Baker said. “He brings a lot of knowledge, always in the right spot, always doing his job at a high level.”
Tight end Tip Reiman (foot) and edge rusher Josh Sweat (knee) are the only two Cardinals players who are still on the PUP list. LaFleur said Reiman won't be ready for Week 1 while he's confident Sweat will be ready. Sweat led the team with a career-high 12 sacks last season.
LaFleur said starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett will not play when the Cardinals host the Dallas Cowboys in a preseason game on Saturday.
Backup Gardner Minshew will start against the Cowboys while rookie Carson Beck (ribs) is unlikely to play after suffering his injury in the Hall of Fame game against the Carolina Panthers on Aug. 6.
Beck was impressive in his preseason debut, completing 15 of 19 passes for 188 yards and a touchdown.
“He's going to throw today after practice,” LaFleur said of Beck. “He's feeling better.”
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
FILE - Arizona Cardinals cornerback Garrett Williams pauses on the field prior to an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Nov. 23, 2025, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army unit based in Europe that was specializing in drone warfare has been directed to end its efforts to learn and use the battlefield technology and return to being a traditional infantry battalion, officials said Thursday.
For more nearly a year, soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade have been experimenting and building their own drones, as well as participating in drills on waging unmanned warfare after Ukraine pioneered such tactics in its yearslong conflict with Russia. Last November, 600 soldiers formed a battalion that specialized in drone warfare and was set up to be used as a dedicated unit that could deploy anywhere drones were required.
Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army's acting chief of staff, has ordered the battalion to refocus on its core mission of being an airborne infantry unit, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal Army deliberations. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the change.
The move comes amid a broader reshuffling of the Army under LaNeve, who has been its top uniformed leader since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suddenly ousted Gen. Randy George in April.
The decision also comes despite the Iran war showing the need for the U.S. to learn lessons about drone warfare from Ukraine. Iran has deployed its low-cost Shahed drones against ships and bases, killing U.S. troops, downing an Army helicopter and forcing the military to expend precious supplies of advanced interceptors.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in March that Ukrainian officials were helping five countries in the Middle East and Gulf region counter Iranian drone attacks, while the United States and European countries were among others that had requested support.
The overall 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is based in Italy and Germany, has been involved in drone warfare even before last November.
In May 2025, the Army highlighted that soldiers from the brigade were designing and building their own attack drones in a new “first-person view (FPV) drone lab” at Caserma Del Din, Italy.
Its commander at the time, Col. Joshua Gaspard, said in an Army media post that his soldiers “see videos of FPV drones in Ukraine all over Instagram and the news media” and they were “excited to be using these systems.”
The unit also dabbled in artificial intelligence, which Hegseth has been pushing, and designing drones resistant to jamming.
An Army statement said the specialized drone unit will wrap up its experimentation following two major exercises in Germany this month and next, then “deliver what it learned there, together with the past year’s findings, to the Army to inform force design and future experimentation.”
A third official, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity to detail internal moves, noted the expectation was always that the exercises would be a “culminating event” for the drone battalion and that its future would then be reevaluated. During George’s tenure, most expected the unit to continue its work in drone warfare, the official said.
“The unit was tasked to study and absorb lessons from dedicated unmanned systems forces, including those developed by the Ukrainian armed forces, and to provide that feedback to the Army in support of the Department’s direction to accelerate U.S. military drone dominance,” the Army said in a statement.
Integrating drones into the Army's tactics was a major focus for LaNeve's predecessor. George, alongside Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, last year rolled out what they called the Army Transformation Initiative, which pushed to add “modernized (unmanned aircraft systems) into formations.”
George, who became Army chief of staff under President Joe Biden, regularly spoke about the need to accelerate development of new drone systems and get them in the hands of regular soldiers, not just specialized units.
After George was ousted without explanation in April, LaNeve took his place. He was George's deputy and an officer whose career has seen a meteoric rise under Hegseth.
LaNeve was commanding the U.S. Eighth Army in South Korea when he called in to the Commander in Chief Ball during President Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2025 and welcomed him back to office.
In March 2025, LaNeve was transferred to the Pentagon, where he became Hegseth's top military adviser. Trump then nominated LaNeve to be the Army’s vice chief of staff last October.
In a guiding memo for the Army published Wednesday, LaNeve argued that “the next war will not look like our last” and that soldiers need to “learn, innovate, and adapt faster by pairing our human ingenuity and judgment with advanced technologies like autonomy and artificial intelligence.”
However, the memo does not mention drones and closes by arguing that “there are timeless truths in war.”
“This is the Army we must be: disciplined, lethal, and relentless — an Army that closes with and destroys the enemy, leaving no doubt about the will and power of the United States,” the document says.
FILE - Gen. Christopher LaNeve, vice chief of staff of the Army, testifies at the Capitol in Washington, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
