Arizona Cardinals: Predicting the final 53

Week one of preseason football has completed for the Arizona Cardinals 

You aren’t going to see much separation on the Arizona Cardinals depth chart after just one preseason game but the sense is there could be a few players ready to break out. The Cardinals lost 31-10 to the Oakland Raiders on Friday night.

With still three preseason games left, I take a look at how I see the final 53-man roster filling out three weeks before rosters need to be made final.  This is likely to change each of the next three weeks.

Quarterback (3)

Carson Palmer, Drew Stanton, Matt Barkley

All three got a chance to play on Friday night.  Palmer played in limited time while Stanton and Barkley saw more extended time.  Neither Stanton or Barkley played particularly well.

The real question here will be whether the Cardinals keep just two or keep three quarterbacks. Some have hinted at the possibility of two.  For now, I am sticking with three.

Receiver (6)

Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd, John Brown, J.J. Nelson, Jaron Brown, Jaxon Shipley

This position is one of the more difficult ones to predict. In the past it was thought the Cardinals would keep six here only to end up with five.  This year though the competition is so stiff, I wouldn’t even rule out the possibility of seven.  Six sounds more like reality.

The Cardinals really tried giving Shipley the ball a lot on Friday night.  Right now I would give him a leg up on Chris Hubert and Brittan Golden.

Running back (4)

David Johnson, Chris Johnson, Andre Ellington, Kerwynn Williams

David Johnson is the sure starter but all four of these guys had nice moments in the preseason opener.  How do you leave any of them off the roster?

Given the Cardinals history with running back injuries, it would be prudent to keep four here.  If the Cardinals weren’t so deep at receiver I’d even give Stepfan Taylor a chance here.

Tight End (4)

Darren Fells, Jermaine Gresham, Troy Niklas, Ifeanyi Momah

Not much from Fells or Gresham on Friday night but then again we didn’t expect to see much. Niklas played great and almost scored a touchdown on a 32-yard reception.  Head Coach Bruce Arians called him out.

Momah had the most targets of all the tight ends against the Raiders.  He has a leg up on Greald Christian right now for the final tight end spot, assuming they only keep four of them.

Offensive line (9)

Jared Veldheer, D.J. Humphries, Mike Iupati, A.Q. Shipley, Evan Mathis, Evan Boehm, Cole Toner, Rob Crisp, Earl Watford

With only three tackles on this list, it could change.  The Cardinals are trying to give Humphries a workout this preseason to get him ready to be a starting tackle on opening day.  He still has a lot of work to do.

Both Crisp and Watford could be on the bubble come cut time.  It will be interesting to see if they actually keep one, both, or neither of them.

Next: The defense and special teams