Earl Watford: Should he stay or should he go?

Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman Earl Watford is an unrestricted free agent. Should he be a Cardinal in 2017?

The Arizona Cardinals have a number of free agents going into 2017. Some will return to the desert, while others will move on. In this series – titled “Should he stay or should he go?” – I look at the cases for and against the return of key free agents, from both the team perspective and the player perspective.

Next up: Offensive lineman Earl Watford

Why the Cardinals should re-sign him:

Not only is Watford familiar with the Cardinals’ offense, but he has also earned the nickname “Swiss Army Knife” for his ability to play multiple positions along the offensive line. Such versatility is valuable on game days, when teams must decide which players to designate as inactive.

If you have an offensive lineman who can fill in at multiple positions, you have the luxury of dressing one fewer active lineman on game days. This, in turn, allows the team to keep one additional active player elsewhere. For positions like defensive line, where rotating in fresh players is advantageous, an additional active player can make a meaningful difference.

Why the Cardinals should not re-sign him:

The Cardinals drafted Watford in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL draft. Over the four seasons that followed, Watford has started only a total of 12 games. Ten of those starts came in 2016, in large part due to a rash of injuries.

Unfortunately, Watford did not play particularly well during those starts. According to Pro Football Focus, his overall grade in 2016 was an abysmal 33.9. Though some of Watford’s struggles can be attributed to the Cardinals’ tendency to have their tackles block in empty sets, even practice squad journeyman John Wetzel (40.5 PFF grade) performed better than Watford in 2016.

Despite this poor performance, there is still the possibility that another team may attempt to sign Watford as a starter, thereby increasing his asking price. Altogether, it seems unlikely that the Cardinals would be willing to pay even modest veteran money to a lineman whose performance was matched by a replacement level player.