Back to the drawing board: A blueprint for the Cardinals offseason
The Arizona Cardinals have a lot of issues that need fixing this offseason. Here’s a blueprint they should follow to become a contender next season.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
There’s no doubt about it this house of Cards needs some serious repairs. After beginning a major rebuild after the 2018 season, plans looked ahead of schedule at times this season. But the second half of the season revealed some concerning cracks in the foundation. The team now needs to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to fix things.
An Attempt to Measure Draft Prowess By ON Viking on Jan 19, 2021, 3:26pm CST +
I have a question. How adept at the NFL Draft is Rick Spielman?
I have been torn over the last season regarding Spielman s ability to successfully create a winning team. I know many of you have been with me on that matter. I have long been a fan of most of Speilman s work in many respects. I like his draft strategy of accruing picks to create talented depth behind talented starters. I admired that he was willing to take a swing for the fences with quarterbacks, no matter who it may be, as they are clearly the most important piece on the field. I like that he was strong enough to move on from Diggs (I love the guy and am so happy for him this year) and get a first rounder for the 5th round original draft pick. I like that he hired defensive tough guy Mike Zimmer as the head coach for a team that couldn t tackle to save their lives under defensive-minded Leslie Frazier. I like a lot
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The Arizona Cardinals have some fairly notable free agents going into the off-season. One-time cornerstone players like Patrick Peterson and Larry Fitzgerald are set to hit the open market. They also have decisions to make around the likes of Haason Reddick and Kelvin Beachum. There are some big decisions as the Cardinals look to get over the hump and into the playoffs. General manager Steve Keim is going to have his work cut out for him.
Lost revenue due to COVID-19 will impact every team, but with so many free agents the likely drop in the league wide salary cap number could make things difficult. The 2020 number was around $198 million, while the 2021 number could drop to $180.5 million according to Over The Cap, but is subject to change.
2021 Offseason Outlook: Edge Defenders By George Forder @GeorgeForder3 on Jan 18, 2021, 9:34am EST +
So much of the conversation about the future of the Miami Dolphins revolves around Tua Tagovailoa and the offense, but this team s early success came from the stellar play of their defense. Josh Boyer s (and Flo s) squad improved from the worst scoring defense in the NFL (30.9 ppg) to sixth (21.1 ppg). So, how did they do it? Chris Grier spent an exorbitant amount of money building up this side of the ball through free agency. They are now in the advantageous position of returning ten of their eleven starters on defense. With the cap shrinking for the 2021 season, they won t have a ton of money (they are projected to have just 25 million in cap space) to spend improving the defense. Though, a couple small-scale signings could go a long way towards adding depth in a few key positions. What follows is a break down, by position group, of the defense
I have to do one spicy article each offseason, so here is this year's.
My first moves have been made for me: let Fichtner and Sarrett go. We are hiring Ed Warriner as offensive line coach, and he.