Arizona Cardinals: Receiver battle tightens

Despite the loss, the Arizona Cardinals receivers had their moments on Sunday

The Arizona Cardinals may have lost 34-24 to the Houston Texans on Sunday, however they did find out they have some tough decisions regarding receivers this week. The first cut-down to 75 players must happen by Tuesday. The cut-down to 53 must happy by Saturday afternoon.

The Cardinals know their top five receivers will be Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd, John Brown, Jaron Brown, and J.J. Nelson. They are the no-doubters. Jaron Brown made another nice 10-yard reception on Sunday. He made sure he left no doubters early in camp.

So do the Cardinals keep six or seven receivers? With the depth needed at other positions, I doubt they will be able to keep seven on the roster. So that leaves three guys fighting for one spot.

It is difficult to point out a leader in the clubhouse right now unfortunately. Today was the most we’d seen out of Brittan Golden. He was targeted 10 times on Sunday. He finished with six receptions for 80 yards.

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Jaxon Shipley, who had been getting a lot of targets, was only targeted half of that, five times on Sunday. He caught three passes for 27 yards but also made a nice touchdown grab that wasn’t really meant for him.

Then there is Chris Hubert. Hubert had a good camp. He caught three passes for 72 yards and also was on the receiving end of a touchdown for 43-yards. It was a ball that he adjusted nicely to.

All three likely will survive this first round of cuts and will get one more chance Thursday night in the preseason finale against the Denver Broncos. The Cardinals probably can’t go too wrong with any of the three.

Pressed for a decision right now, I’d say Golden gets the sixth spot due to experience. Then Shipley or Hubert could be playing for the practice squad or another team. I wouldn’t fault the Cardinals no matter how that decision plays out though.

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