Arizona Cardinals: NFL Offseason Report Card
Going into the 2016 NFL season as Super Bowl contenders, the Arizona Cardinals took a major step back in their quest for a Lombardi Trophy.
With an aging quarterback and star wide receiver, the Cardinals entered one of the biggest offseasons in franchise history.
It was a rough free agency period for Arizona, who lost multiple blue-chip players. Calais Campbell, Tony Jefferson, Marcus Cooper, D.J. Swearinger, and Kevin Minter were each big holes to replace.
They picked off multiple players from San Francisco to fill those craters, namely Antoine Bethea, Phil Dawson, and Blaine Gabbert. Nothing too great for Arizona in free agency.
Early into the Cardinals draft, I was impressed with how Bruce Arians handled to class. Going with a player from his former school Temple, Arians found the replacement for veteran Karlos Dansby at strong-side linebacker.
Budda Baker is a very good safety coming out of Washington, but his role in Arizona isn’t immediately clear. Perhaps it was a “best player available” option, but with Tyrann Mathieu entrenched as the starter Baker may not have been the smartest pick.
More from NFL Draft
- Packers’ Lukas Van Ness will make a Lambeau leap into the NFL in 2023
- 2024 NFL Draft: Hunter Haas’ Top 50 Big Board
- NFL preseason Week 3: Notre Dame’s Mayer, Foskey with something to prove
- NFL Draft Notebook: Bo Nix is the third-best quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft
- Mac Jones ‘a pretty flexible guy’; Patriots QB earning kind words from Belichick
Chad Williams made no sense based on who was still available (Isaiah Ford, Ryan Switzer etc.) while Dorian Johnson was a great value pick who could start at right guard.
- Haason Reddick, OLB
- Budda Baker, S
- Chad Williams, WR
- Dorian Johnson, OG
- Will Holden, OT
- TJ Logan, RB
- Jonathan Ford, S
How a quarterback was not picked is beyond me, although perhaps Arians looked at the class as a whole and felt there was no fit worth a draft pick.
Next: The Greatest Trade For Every NFL Team In History
Final Grade: C-
Between losing five starters in free agency and making some questionable draft picks, it’s hard to give the Cardinals a passing grade on their offseason. The Reddick and Johnson picks keep them above water, but everything else holds them down.
Williams really concerned me for reasons mentioned above, and getting another running back when they did was also a reason they muffled through the offseason.