Safeties could rescue Arizona Cardinals secondary

While the cornerback position is still a question mark for the Arizona Cardinals, depth at safety may overcome the weakness

The Arizona Cardinals have searched high and low. After exploring a few scenarios, they’ve finally settled on a quartet of cornerbacks. Only time will tell whether what they’ve settled on is good enough.

The “Honey Badger”, Tyrann Mathieu, handles slot corner duties at the present time besides being a safety. His slight size makes him questionable for handling cover duties out on the edge though. Nevertheless, he is as complete a football player as there is in the NFL.

New addition Tyvon Branch has the speed to stay with wide receivers so he could be utilized in coverage. He also has the size to match up with bigger pass-catchers. It’s possible he’ll be asked to do just that if what they’re going with at cornerback fails.

Tony Jefferson regularly covers tight ends. He’s had mixed success doing so. Whether he could stay with a speedy receiver is another story.

D.J. Swearinger and rookie Marqui Christian won’t give you much in terms of coverage ability. What they can do is knock the socks off of any player who dares to enter the “No fly zone”.

The hope is that one of the team’s cornerbacks forms a dynamic duo with the already dynamic Patrick Peterson. Rookie Brandon Williams, incumbent starter Justin Bethel and newcomer Marcus Cooper are the candidates.

To sum it up, the Cardinals have one great cornerback with question marks behind him. Most likely the position “is what it is”, unless there’s a trade in the works that no one knows about.

So the coaching staff may look to the safety department for help. The talent is certainly there. Super Bowl dreams may be riding on it.