Arizona Cardinals may experience roster turnover in 2018
By Jim Koch
With a lengthy list of free agents who offer limited value the Arizona Cardinals roster could face sweeping changes in 2018
Fans of the Arizona Cardinals should start preparing themselves now. There’s a good possibility that next year’s squad will look alot different than 2017’s. Whether the changes will be good or not is still a long way from being determined.
Next year could be the first campaign since 2003 that the Cards don’t have future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald. It also looks like the club will be trotting out a new starting quarterback. Unfortunately, whoever that turns out to be will probably not be as good as Carson Palmer is.
The front office will once again be making decisions on many Cardinal free agents. But upon early examination, there isn’t alot of “must have back” within the group. In fact, there’s no one who would come close to being franchise tag-worthy, as Chandler Jones was this offseason.
The most important of 2018’s unrestricted free agents appears to be wide receiver John Brown. But even he has questions surrounding his worthiness. How he bounces back from the sickle cell condition that hampered him last season will be the determining factor for that.
More from Raising Zona
- Arizona Cardinals: Could Eric Bieniemy come to the desert?
- Would Jonathan Gannon be a good fit for the Arizona Cardinals?
- Arizona Cardinals: Budda Baker right in his take regarding the next coach
- Arizona Cardinals: 3 reasons new coach should want to work with Murray
- Arizona Cardinals special teams could be completely revamped in 2023
Some offensive contributors currently scheduled to hit the market are Jaron Brown, Drew Stanton, Andre Ellington, Troy Niklas and Kerwyn Williams. On the defensive side there’s Tyvon Branch, Corey Peters, Justin Bethel, Ed Stinson, Frostee Rucker, Karlos Dansby and Jarvis Jones. None are bad players, but every one of them can be replaced.
Management’s biggest responsibility is fielding a competitive unit each and every season. Doing that in 2018 minus the greatest wide receiver in Cardinals’ history and a quality starter at quarterback is gonna be a huge challenge to say the least. How Arizona handles the transition will be extremely interesting to witness.