The Arizona Cardinals just got a new coach and a new coaching staff for the most part. So as Jonathan Gannon’s first order of business? Blow. It.All. Up. The Arizona Cardinals are going to be without Kyler Murray for pretty much the whole season. Unless Colt McCoy or “Quarterback McQuarterback” comes in and pulls a Drew Stanton 2014-like run, the Cardinals will be finding themselves within the top 10 of the draft again.
This would make it pointless for Murray to return to play. So let’s eliminate the current Arizona Cardinals as we know it. It’s the only way this team is actually going to improve. The first step is fixing the less-than-ideal cap space the Cardinals have. OverTheCap shows the Cardinals having ~13 million, but the effective cap, or the actual amount they could really spend on free agents is closer to 4 million. This is due to bad decisions such as Marquise Brown and Robby/Robbie/Chosen Anderson. Additionally, they have about 9 million in dead cap space.
With all of that being said, trades could definitely be done for big-name Cardinals players such as DeAndre Hopkins, fan-favorite Budda Baker, and Jalen Thompson. All would be highly valued in multiple spots around the league. Imagine Hopkins terrorizing the NFC North with Justin Fields. But those trade proposals are for another article. Let’s face it, trying to trade their contracts (sans Thompson) would be a tall task.
Now before I get the angry mob coming at me, I am not saying that this is the exact way the Cardinals should go about business. It could just be a route that new GM Monti Ossenfort takes. If the Cardinals couldn’t find a trade partner for Baker and/or Hopkins, cutting them would do wonders for their cap space. What I decided to go with are the following moves (* indicates a post-June 1st cut).
- Release DeAndre Hopkins*: $19.4M saved
- Release Budda Baker* : $13M Saved
- Release Marquise Brown: $0 Saved, this was just a terrible trade anyways
- Release Robbie Anderson: $12M saved
- Release James Conner*: $2.6M saved
- Release Jalen Thompson*: $170K saved
- Release Rodney Hudson* : $3M Saved
All of these cuts would give the Cardinals about $64 million in cap space, a number that would work much better for the team. Now the Cardinals actually have some space to re-sign their expiring free agents.
Here are the Cardinals’ free agents that I am re-signing:
- CB Josh Jackson
- CB Antonio Hamilton
- S Chris Banjo
- WR Greg Dortch
- WR Antoine Wesley
- CB Byron Murphy
- LB/ST Zeke Turner
- G Will Hernandez
Most of these contracts won’t break the bank, and the Cardinals could spend a good amount to bring home a free-agent center in Garrett Bradbury from Minnesota, or Bradley Bozeman from Carolina. These two are 27 and 28 years old respectively, so they would have some gas in the tank compared to that of Rodney Hudson. Spending on a center in free agency is so important as Johnathan Gannon is going to have Murray under center for the first time in his career. Murray will need someone who is reliable and mobile (ironic, I know) to be the “QB of the offensive line”.
Anyone who watched the Arizona Cardinals with and then without Hudson knows just how vital of a difference he made for them in the 2021 season. On the other side of the ball, Ossenfort could try to sign Washington DT Da’Ron Payne, but in a shallow market, he could be seeing Albert Haynesworth money that the Cardinals may not have.
In the end, this entire scenario is not likely to happen- so don’t quote me on this. But if one of the big names does get released, then it could be a harbinger of things to come. If you were Ossenfort, what would you do? Would you make any of these cuts or try trading them away? When push comes to shove, we will see how serious the Cardinals are about reloading their arsenal for when Murray comes back. Ossenfort and Gannon’s job could be on the line as soon as 2025 if 2024 does not go very well.
