The best salary-cap bargains of the 2020 Arizona Cardinals
By Jim Koch
There are a group of Arizona Cardinals who should far outperform what they are scheduled to be paid for the 2020 campaign
It’s that time of the year again for the Arizona Cardinals front office. You can bet that general manager Steve Keim is hard at work, formulating a plan for the franchise’s 2020 roster. Several Cardinals will count a significant amount against the club’s salary cap, but there are other vital members of the squad who won’t cost nearly as much.
Quarterback Kyler Murray, the first-overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft, may be the biggest bargain on the team at the present moment. According to Spotrac.com, the Offensive Rookie of the Year is due a base salary of just $585,000 for next season. Murray’s $7.9 million salary-cap hit in ’20 is also well below a majority of the league’s first-string signal-callers.
Another Cards player who will give the organization plenty of bang for their buck is safety Budda Baker. The two-time Pro Bowler will earn a base salary of just $1.3 million during the next campaign, in what will be Baker’s fourth year as a professional. The 24-year old is well worth the $2.1 million he’ll count against Arizona’s salary cap this coming fall.
Christian Kirk will collect a base salary of just over a million dollars in ’20, an exceptionally reasonable number for a starting wide receiver. The cap value for the 23-year old, $1.6 million, is roughly $10 million less than fellow wideout Larry Fitzgerald‘s figure for the upcoming year. The Cardinals are waiting for a breakout performance from Kirk, their second-round draft pick in 2018.
Cornerback Byron Murphy, filling in for an injured Robert Alford, saw an excessive amount of action as a rookie in 2019. That could change next season if Alford and Patrick Peterson remain with the Cards. Even if Murphy’s role is reduced, his $885,159 base salary and $1.8 cap hit in ’20 can be looked at as bargains.
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All four of the Redbirds featured in this article, in comparison to some of their peers, are underpaid. Keim and company should be well aware of the fact that things won’t stay that way for long. Significant raises are likely on the way for everyone in that group, so Arizona needs to take advantage of those team-friendly contracts for as long as they can.