Marcus Gilbert could make his Arizona Cardinals debut in 2021

Almost two years have passed since the Arizona Cardinals orchestrated a trade for an offensive tackle. The player in question, veteran lineman Marcus Gilbert, has yet to play a down for the organization that acquired him from the Pittsburgh Steelers back in 2019. Could the 32-year old Gilbert finally make his Cardinals debut this coming fall?

In reality, Arizona’s front office has gotten exactly zero in return for the sixth-round draft pick they forked over to the Steelers for Gilbert. The 6’6, 330 pounder has missed both of the past two campaigns for reasons beyond his control. Well, sort of.

On August 4th of last year, Gilbert announced that he would opt out of the 2020 season, citing COVID-19 as the reason. The Cards blocker was considered “high-risk”, and did not want to put himself or his family in harm’s way of the coronavirus. As it turned out, Gilbert would be the only member of the Cardinals roster to make that incredibly tough decision.

Just one year before, Gilbert missed the entire 2019 schedule because of a knee injury. On the Thursday before Arizona’s season-opener, the former second-round selection of the Steelers suffered a torn ACL during a team practice. Gilbert’s first action with his new squad would be delayed, but little did the Cards know at the time how long that delay would actually be.

In March of ’20, Gilbert signed a one-year contract that would keep him in the desert for another campaign. The deal was worth $1,050,000, with $150,000 of it guaranteed. The Cardinals were obviously were hoping for a little payback on their investment, but COVID-19 put the kibosh on that last year.

Under NFL rules, the agreement Gilbert made with Arizona a year ago will carry over to the 2021 campaign. Fortunately, the franchise may still have an opportunity to get something out of the snake-bitten Gilbert. Rest assured, general manager Steve Keim and the rest of the Cards personnel department would love nothing more.