5 linebackers for Arizona Cardinals to target in free agency
By Scott Allen
The Arizona Cardinals need help at linebacker where they’ve seen a bit of a revolving door due to injury over the past couple of seasons
Last week I detailed 10 free agents over all the Arizona Cardinals should sign. Now I’ve broken it down by position, so you may see some guys I’ve talked about in the past on this list. If you narrow it down to position by position though, these are five linebackers the Cardinals should target.
This is a realistic list, not a list of the best linebackers available. So a guy like Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller will not make this list. He’s unattainable. Not only does Denver likely keep him via the franchise tag or a re-signing, he’s expensive.
Tahir Whitehead, Detroit Lions
Whitehead has attributes that would be attractive to the Cardinals. He is tall at 6-2. He is young. He is currently 25, will be 26 in April. He was a full-time starter in 2014 but started just eight of 16 games in 2015. He had 50 tackles and two sacks in 2015 for the Lions. He had six passes defensed though and one interception last season.
I added Whitehead as one of the top-10 overall free agents for the Cardinals to target. Looking at his stat sheet over the course of game by game he started slow in 2015 but that was a lot like the rest of the team. In the second-half of the season when he had all eight of his starts, he was very consistent in his production.
If Detroit doesn’t re-sign him, which they should seriously consider, he would be a nice fit in Arizona. They need linebackers who will always be around the ball.
Next: A little depth never hurt anyone