Arizona Cardinals should have kept McCrane

The Arizona Cardinals released kicker Matt McCrane on Monday

At this point, the Arizona Cardinals should be evaluating their roster position by position.  The 2018 season is over.  Why not get ahead of 2019 now?

Instead, the Cardinals have decided to stick with what got them here to 2-8.  One of those decisions is with their kicker.  On Monday, they released Matt McCrane, two days after signing him.

Phil Dawson, the usual kicker, was injured and couldn’t go on Sunday in the loss to the Oakland Raiders.  Dawson hasn’t been horrible this season, but then again he’s not had much of a chance to get work.

Dawson is just 4-6 on field goals this season.  He is 14-14 on extra points, something many kickers have had trouble with this season.

But the fact is he isn’t getting any younger in his 20th NFL season.  Why not evaluate younger talent like McCrane the rest of the season.

McCrane was 3-3 on Sunday on extra points.  He did not get an opportunity to attempt a field goal.  Why not keep him around to see what he can do?

The 43-year old kicker could be calling it a career sometime soon.  This is the time to bring in younger help.  Whether that includes McCrane or not could remain to be seen.

They had him now though.  He may not get a chance to come back.  This was already his third chance to show the Cardinals what he could do after training camp, an earlier pickup to the practice squad this season, and then this past weekend.

So be it though.  The Cardinals gave up on their quarterback in Sam Bradford pretty quick to go with the younger Josh Rosen.  So kicker is where they draw the line here?

C’mon guys.  The evaluation needs to be at every position, including kicker.  With the toughest schedule in the NFL over the last six weeks of the season, there is no reason to not start the re-boot now.